Recollections of a California pioneer

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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

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Cornell University Library
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Recollections of a California pioneer /

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3 1924 028 919 715

RECOLLECTIONS OF A
CALIFORNIA PIONEER

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(aSI

Cornell University
Library

The original of tliis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

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Frontispiece

RECOLI.F.C'^^'IONS OF A
:ALIFnR\|.\ PIONEEfi

CA'i.LISLE S. '^BliOTT

"flE NEALE PUBDSIIiNG C<»_!?\ .:^%.
FOURTH AVtNnE, N K W >*>«M

RECOLLECTIONS OF A
CALIFORNIA PIONEER

BY

CARLISLE S. ABBOTT

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY

440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
MCMXVII

COPTBIGHT, 1917, BY

The Neami PuBUSHiNa Compant

7'>

<^Q<jl?

^

To

my children and my grandchildren
this volume is affectionately inscribed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword 9

CHAFTEB

I. Eaelt Years 11

II. Off fob Califoenia 18

III. The Valley of the Platte ... 26

IV. Swimming the Platte 34

V. The Gbat Wolf 45

VI. Westwabd 53

VII. The Desert 63

VIII. At the Carson Riveb 72

IX. At the Mines 86

X. Judge Lynch and Yankee Slide . 98

XI. DiVEBSIONS AND AMUSEMENTS . . 114

XII. Just an Incident 117

XIII. Right Place — ^Wbong Time . . . 124

XIV. HoMEWAED Bound 128

XV. The Second Teip Across .... 134

XVI. Menaced by the Pawnees . . . 140

XVII. At Sacramento — Flood and Fire . 145
XVIII. The Wrecks of the Sea Nymph and

Long Island 151

TABLE OP CONTENTS

CBAPTEB FAOB

XIX. Salinas Vallbt— A Bull and Bear

Fight 165

XX. Eablt Salinas Valley Politics . . 169

XXI. Business Ventubes 164

XXII. In Arizona 169

XXIII. An Awful Joubnet, and a Fool Bar-

gain 172

XXIV. Uncle Ben's Escape 179

XXV. An Apache Wab Dance .... 183

XXVI. Seeing the Countet 189

XXVII. Presentiments 200

XXVIII. Arizona Politics 205

XXIX. A Kemindeb of a Fool Bargain . . 210
XXX. The Apache Indian and His Atroci-
ties 216

XXXI. The Peck Familt 219

XXXII. An Arizona Romance 222

Epiloqub 234

FOREWORD

This book of Recollections was entirely writ-
ten after I had passed my eighty-eighth birth-
day, the chief inducement to the undertaking
being a desire on my part to leave to my child-
ren, my grandchildren, and their posterity a
story of my long life.

There will, therefore, be found in these pages
some things that will prove of little or no inter-
est to the average reader; but these purely per-
sonal passages are, I trust, few in number, and
they may be readily skipped.

That all my readers will give full credence to
everything that is hereinafter related is more
than I can reasonably expect; but this consid-
eration does not militate against the truth of
the statement I now make: that, however ex-
travagant, however extraordinary, some of the
incidents here referred to may api)ear, I have
endeavored to give a truthful narrative, and
that, while the lapse of years and the infirmities
of age have doubtless caused my memory to
fail in reference to exact dates, distances, di-
rections, and such trifling matters, I have in all
the substantials presented the truth.

The term "California Pioneer," in its strict
9

10 Foreword

application, includes only those who reached
the State prior to January 1, 1850; and while
I do not quite measure up to this standard, I
have thought that this acknowledgment may
soften the criticism that otherwise would prop-
erly follow my appropriation of a label of
which those dauntless old heroes have always
been so justly proud.

The frequent use I have made of the first
personal pronoun singular, — not less offensive
to the author than to the reader, — was rendered
necessary by the nature of the production ; how-
ever, as the word makes for brevity, this blem-
ish is in a measure compensated.

Making no pretension to literary excellence,
I shall not complain of the criticisms of the
learned concerning the literary qualities of this
production; for it is just what it purports to
be : a plain life history of a plain old man.

Caelisle S. Abbott.
Salinas, Cal., 1917.

RECOLLECTIONS OF
A CALIFORNIA PIONEER

1828-1917
CHAPTER I

EAELY YEAES

In a large farmhouse on the eastern shore of
Lake Memphremagog, about twelve miles north
of the line between Canada and Vermont, on
the 26th day of February, 1828, I became an
inhabitant of this little planet, — over which we
crawl for a few short years, much as a lady-
bug crawls over a pumpkin, — ^where we liv«, and
love, and strive, and fight.

Therefore I am a Canadian, although my
parents were from Connecticut. They emi-
grated to Canada when that country was a
dense forest, and they had to clear the land of
timber, then of stumps. Then a crop of rocks
appeared, which had to be dug out and either
made into fences or rolled down into the lake.
One of my earlier recollections is of Father say-
ing to us three younger boys, — Harvey, Alvin,
and Carr :

11

12 A Ccdifomia Pioneer

"Let's go down to th.e lake and have some
fun rolling rocks down the hill and see them
jump into the water."

Well, it was fun aU right, hut late in the after-
noon we got tired, and Harvey said :

"Look here, Carr, don't Father mean this
for work?"

It did not take long for us to conclude that
he did ; and we went home.

Jjo. the winter, when the snow covered the
fences, Father would go to Montreal, eighty
miles away, with butter, cheese, and hogs, which
were frozen as hard as the ice that covered the
lake.

Our house was an old-fashioned affajir, one
and a half stories high, with a room eighteen
or twenty feet square, in which, — ^not the least
of its conveniences, — ^was a fireplace that would
accommodate a log two feet in diameter and
four feet long.

The family originally consisted of seven sons
and three daughters ; but some of my brothers
being then of age, had refused to take the oath
of allegiance to the British government and had
gone to the United States.

When I was quite small, a sister about six-
teen years of age picked me up and went romp-
ing across this big room with me sitting upon
her left shoulder; but she accidentally let my
legs slip from beneath her arm; this broke my

Early Years 13

hold on her neck, and I went over backward
and down to the floor head first. And ever
since then I seem to have been, most of the
time, either wrong end up, or in the right place
at the wrong time.

At the age of eight years my mother died,
giving me in charge of an older brother, Abiel.
I have no fault to find with Abiel, but he was
the greatest worker of any age or country, and
cared nothing for amusements. In the winter
he would go into the pine woods on some timber
contract and leave me with all the chores to
do, — ^feeding stock, milking cows, and chopping
open water holes (which used to freeze over
every night) for the cattle to drink from, and
as this made me late to school, black marks
were the result.

On one occasion, when I was seventeen years
old, I took the black mare and Hght wagon and
went away three miles, got my best girl, and
went to an apple-paring. We pared apples un-
til midnight, had a banquet, and then danced
imtil daylight. The sun was well up when I
got home; and I got the scolding of my life.

About two weeks later a neighbor had an-
nounced an apple-paring for the afternoon. I
told Abiel that my two next older brothers
were going and I wanted to go, but he said
"No." We were digging potatoes on a rocky
hillside, and Abiel remarked that he wanted to

14 A California Pioneer

get those potatoes dug before the snow fell,
saying, moreover, that I was getting rude and
unsteady, and was running around with the
girls and did not earn my board. I happened
to be picking up potatoes at the time and was
about ten feet from him, with about a peck of
potatoes in the basket; so I slung it at him
with all my strength, and the potatoes went all
over him. I broke and ran, and at every jump
I made down that hill I thought he was in
my last step, but I could not look back, for that
would take time. Finally I had to turn a square
corner to go around the barn, and, looking back,
saw he was standing in the same spot, leaning
on his hoe-handle. For years after, whenever
I thought of him, whether it was light or after
I had closed my eyes at night, I could see him
leaning on that hoe-handle, looking after the
runaway boy who did not return.

I went to the house, put on my best suit, tied
my other clothes up in a bundle, went to the
apple-paring, and danced as I had never danced
before, for I was not only mad but scared about
my present situation, — ^with no place to go after
the dance. I had left the bundle of everyday
clothes in the brush along the road, which was
all the home I now had ; and that infernal poem
that I had recited at our evening spelling-school
kept running through my head. I can recall but
two of these verses :

Early Years 15

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span,

Oh, give relief, and Heaven will bless your store!

These tattered clothes my poverty bespeak.

These hoary locks procl^m my lengthened years,

And ma.Tiy a furrow down my grief -worn cheeks
Has been the channel for a flood of tears.

My two older brothers, Harvey and Alvin,
were at the dance, and wanted to know what the
blazes was the matter with me to-night, remark-
ing:

"You dance every set and slash the girls
around as though they were bundles of straw."

I told them the whole story. They insisted
on my going home with them to breakfast, which
I did; and after that I struck out for a job.
Finally, after two days' search, I got employ-
ment at eight dollars a month until the school
opened. Then I went to school and worked for
my board nights and mornings.

The following summer I worked for Ealph
Merry at Magog. He had a store in town and
a farm near by. Wages big, — five dollars per
month in cash, and five dollars in trade out of
the stoire! However, I saved money enough to
take me to Wisconsin, — the "Far West," as it
was then called, — where I had four brothers,
and where I remained until 1850, when I started
for California. Brother Alvin and I ran one
of those old-fashioned, eight-horse, sweep
threshing machines in '48 and '49. This would

16 A Calif orma Pioneer

not be worth mentioning if it were not for an
incident that took place in 1849, wMle thresh-
ing for a man by the name of Pox.

The farmers had to furnish all the help in
those days. Fox was a temperance man, and
did not allow liquor around if he knew it. New-
ell, one of the employees, loved it dearly, and
he managed to smuggle in a jug of whiskey,
got drunk, and fell off the stack. As this put
Newell completely out of commission, the grain
was not now coming fast enough, and Pox went
to get another man to take Newell 's place; but
soon a white flag was put out of the window
to announce that lunch was ready. "We were
afraid Pox would not be able to get the neces-
sary help, so we tried to wake Newell and get
him to the house, thinking a lunch would fix
him for the afternoon's work. We shook him,
stood him on his head, and tried to shake the
whiskey out of him, but without result. At
length some one said :

"He is dead, let's bury him." The ground
was a sandy loam and easy digging, and we
soon had a hole two feet deep at one end and
tapering to the surface at the other. We put
in some straw, laid Newell in, then put on more
straw, then piled on dirt, and patted it down
just leaving his face above ground, and went to
lunch. On our return Newell was awake, but
he could move neither hand nor foot, though
he could move his tongue, and he used some

Early Years 17

language which, as Bret Harte would say, was
' ' frequent and painful and f ree. " We dug him
out and started him for the house. I never ex-
pected to help bury him again, but I was called
upon to do so the following year.

CHAPTER II

OFF FOB CAIjIFOBNIA

Cubing the following winter ( '49- '50) brother
Alvin and I, attracted like so many others by
the reported discoveries of gold in California,
determined to go to that land of promise. The
usual outfit was a four-horse team and a two--
horse wagon, which would carry sufificient sup-
plies for four men, who could mess together.

There were many people taking the trip, and
we at length formed connection with two men
named Mellon and Vetter. They put up two
horses, while Alvin and I contributed a like
number, — each man to pay his proportion for
the wagon and necessary supplies, and all four
to stick together, sick or well, until the "land
of gold" should be reached. Two other out-
fits of the same kind joined us, making a com-
pany of twelve, all agreeing to share camp and
guard duty on the trip.

"We left Beloit, Wisconsin, March 3, 1850.
There was a large crowd assembled to see us
off, and while shaking hands with wives, sisters,
and sweethearts, I slipped over to Dr. Merri-
man's to bid my fiancee Elizabeth good-by, and

18

Off For CaMfornia 19

give her a smack, without the crowd's looking
on.

Nothing of importance occurred during our
trip to the Missouri Eiver, which we reached
at a point opposite where Omaha is now situ-
ated. Here we crossed in a skiff to visit a
Frenchman named Sarpie, then the only resi-
dent of the now flourishing city of Omaha. He
had a large log house and was engaged in trad-
ing with the Indians, exchanging knickknacks
for peltry. He told us we should not think of
crossing the plains with so small a company;
that we would need a guard at camp and two
men out with the horses, and guard duty would
come too often. Furthermore, he said we might
have trouble with the Indians and get wiped
out; and as to swimming the Platte to lead a
band of horses across, — it was full of quicksand
that would settle in our clothes and sink us.

We were, however, undismayed by his dire
predictions, and upon returning to the east side
of the river, the "City of Tents," we found the
numerous outfits there assembled discussing the
matter of consolidating into companies of from
fifty to seventy-five men.

We joined one of these companies, which had
a man by the name of Clark for its captain.
Clark had been an Indian trader and knew the
whole eastern slope of the Eockies as well as
the climatic conditions, and he was likewise

20 A California Pioneer

familiar with the Indian tribes, their customs
and habits.

Our company consisted of fifty-three men.
Captain Clark appointed a committee to see
that each separate company had a sufficient
supply of food, and that each man had a rifle,
a pistol and a sufficient supply of ammunition.
Without these necessaries no man could join
our company. One of our number, by the
name of Pardee, died of pneumonia the day be-
fore we crossed the river, and was buried where
now rests the eastern end of the great railroad
bridge spanning the river. The fifty-two of us
crossed the river on the 20th day of March,
and camped near Sarpie's store, and the next
morning we started westward over a gently
undulating prairie. This ground had been
burned over the previous fall, and the new short
grass would hardly sustain stock even if it did
not have to work, but we each had a few sacks
of kiln-dried com meal for such an emergency,
so we were able to move along at about ten or
twelve miles a day, until we passed the Loup
fork of the Platte, near its junction with that
stream.

About twelve miles west of the Missouri we
came to a small stream, whose banks were
nearly perpendicular and about ten feet apart,
and whose depth was about six or nine feet,
down to a muddy bottom. Those who had pre-
viously passed over this place had cut down the

Off For CaMfornia 21

banks on each side and had crossed by first
taking the teams over, then running a wagon
down into the stream, and then hitching a chain
to the tongue and pulling the wagon out. Cap-
tain Clark said that it would take until dark
to get our outfits across in that way, and told
us we had better turn our teams out and build
a bridge.

There was a clump of Cottonwood trees about
three hundred yards up the stream, and here
we cut four logs, about eighteen feet long and
one foot in diameter, for stringers; then we cut
poles and brush for covering, and by dusk the
bridge was completed and ready for use. Two
years later I crossed the same bridge with ox
teams.

We rolled out early next morning in order to
reach the Loup before nightfall, as the fire had
not burned the country to the west of that
stream, and the feed there was good. We had
traveled some six or eight miles when Captain
Clark, who had gone ahead on horseback, came
back on the run, shouting :

"Go into camp quick! Put the wagons in a
circle. Lash the tongue of one wagon to the
inside hind-wheel of the next, forming a cor-
ral."

"Whal^What the blazes is the matter?" a
dozen voices cried.

"There is a red blanket spread across the
road a few rods ahead," replied Clark.

22 A Califorma Pioneer

This was a signal for a big laugh.

"Can't we drive over a blanket, or throw it
out of the way, or drive around it?"

"No; it is an Indian notice that they want a
parley, — a friendly talk with the captain of
this company, and if we drive over the blanket,
it is to defy them; while if we throw it to one
side or drive around it, it means that we ig-
nore them ; so get into camp quick, and we wiU
soon see a messenger."

This satisfied us that Clark understood In-
dian customs better than we did, so we rushed
to form the corral, and before the horses were
out to graze, six Indians sprang to their feet
from a low swag in the plain about two hun-
dred yards away. Clark beckoned them to ap-
proach, which they did. One of them spoke
broken English. He said :

"Big Pawnee Chief wants to see your chief."

"What for? What does he want?" replied
Clark.

But the messengers did not know, — or pre-
tended not to know. They said he was at the
river "four or five miles away, no more."

"All right," returned Clark; "you go to the
village. Go fast. I come."

He then called to his partner Newcomb to
saddle and come on; and the two kept close to
the Indians' heels until the village was reached.

The Chief's tepee was like all the others but
larger. Clark and Newcomb rode in front of

Off For California 23

the big tepee and dismounted, and the Chief
came out. He was a tall, robust man, slightly
gray, and could speak English fairly well. He
said:

"You Chief of big train?"

"Yes," replied Clark. "Me Chief. What
do you want?"

"Well," said the Indian, "you eat my grass.
It makes game go away, and you kill my game."

It is considered by the Indians to be very
rude to interrupt an Indian Chief when he is
talking, and Clark waited until he was through,
before saying:

"You have no grass, the fire burned it up.
We have been in your country only two days,
and have seen no game, and we do not want
your game. We have plenty of meat, but we
want grass when it grows. Now what do you
want?"

"Well," answered the Chief, "I want two
plugs of tobacco, four pounds of sugar in lumps,
twenty pounds of flour and meal, three brass
rings for my three wives to wear on their
wrists, and lots of jews-harps for the babies."

"All right," said Clark. "Send men to get
it."

He had written down the articles and had
then started back for the train. Four Indians
on their ponies followed, and the articles de-
manded were contributed by our outfits. But
before our teams were ready to start there were

24 A Calif orma Pioneer

at least one Imiidred men, boys, and girls there
with, leggins, belts, hat-bands and buckskia
purses and moccasins to trade for trinkets,
brass rings, jews-harps and lump sugar, — as
they called it. The Beloit outfit had nearly a
peck of jews-harps, and we traded the most of
them off. And talk about music 1 — it would
have drowned the crack of a rifle. Clark told
us not to give the Indians anything.

"Make them give you something in exchange,
no matter what. If you give to them, they
think you do it because you are afraid of them. ' '

We finally got rid of the savages and were
again on our way, reaching the Loup after dark,
having made the trip laid out in the morning.
We had not made enemies of the Indians, and
this was very important, as their territory ex-
tended for about two hundred miles west of
where we were. We drove into a grove of oak
and sycamore on the bank of the Loup, and put
a guard of three men out with the horses and
one man to guard camp. There was plenty of
dry wood near, but it was too dark to get it; so
we ate a cold Ijite, pitched our tents, and went
to bed and to sleep on this our second night in
the Indian country.

At sunrise we were up and at work cutting
wood, cooking, feeding horses, and attending to
the other camp duties. When we got out of
bed on this third day, we saw close to us Joe
Bowers' wagon-train from Missouri, which, by

Off For California 25

reason of the darkness, had not been visible
when we camped the night before. On one side
of one of the wagons was the original song of
"Joe Bowers," the first verse of which ran:

"My name it is Joe Bowers,

I have a brother Ike,
We are from old Missouri,

All the way from Pike."

CHAPTER in

THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE

We got started in good time and at noon
reached the Platte, where we found the feed
much better. That part of the country had not
been burned over, and as the old grass pro-
tected the new, the horses ate both together,
and the combination made fairly good feed.

Nothing of importance happened for several
days, the feed, however, getting better all the
time. There were wagon-trains all along the
road on both sides of the Platte, and every-
body was banging away at the buffalo, scaring
them away, or killing them and cutting out
choice pieces and leaving the rest to rot, while
the Indians and their wives and children were
starving. It was the most flagrant injustice
this Government ever permitted its people to
practice. The lines between the different tribes
were as distinctly marked as the boundaries
between the different States of the Union, each
of these tribes claiming the ownership of all
the game within its borders, while recognizing
the similar claims of other tribes, and they
looked upon the emigrants as a white tribe in-

26

The Valley of the Platte 27

fringing upon their rights. Indeed I could not
have blamed them if they had cleaned out the
whole white tribe within their borders, for they
had owned and occupied these lands long before
Uncle Sam was bom, yet I was not ready to go
for the fault of others. We shudder at the
massacre of the whole nation of Armenians by
the Turks, but no pen can describe the misery
and despair of a Pawnee village, — of men,
women and children dying of hunger, — ^while
the white tribe was killing, or scaring their
game off into the mountains, and I say that our
Government here caused as much misery by
negligence as the Turks have by savagery.

The next trouble we had was with cholera.
It struck the tide of emigration like a cyclone,
and on both sides of the Platte. The dates on
little headboards along the road were from one
to three days old, which showed us that if we
had been three days' drive farther west, — or
about seventy-five miles, — ^we would have been
ahead of the epidemic; but as all the other
trains ahead of us were moving as fast as we
could, we simply kept along with the disease.
We had just reached that stretch of country
where for two hundred miles there was not a
stick of timber larger than a whipstock, and
where buffalo chips must needs be used for fuel,
when John Newell, whom I had helped once to
bury in Wisconsin, died of cholera. He had
with him two brothers, — from eighteen to

28 A California Pioneer

twenty-two years old, — and received tlie best
of care and the skill of a good doctor. He was
convalescent, but trouble unlooked for was in
the air; black angry clouds along the east foot
of the Rockies, with vivid streaks of lightning,
were seen approaching, to take the place of the
hot sultry air.

* ' Get into camp ! ' ' yelled Clark. ' ' Place the
wagons in V form, the point towards the west,
and tie every horse inside the V. ' '

This done, some of the men commenced to
put up tents.

"Hold on there," cried the captain. "No
tent will stand what is coming. Spread your
tents over the front of the wagons to keep the
wind from tearing the tops off. Tie them down
to the forward wheels. ' '

This was barely done when the wind and rain
struck us with such force that several men, who
were not clinging to the wagon wheels, were
knocked down and a number of wagon covers
went away in the breeze; but, fortunately, they
were carried over a perpendicular bank of the
Platte on to a low bar, where they were re-
covered the following day.

Among the wagons that lost their covers was
John Newell 's, and the rain was falling on him
by bucketfuls. "We lifted him out of the wagon,
bed and all, and put him under it ; but this did
not better the matter. The wind and rain came
with such force that he was as wet as though

The Vallejf of the Platte 29

he had just been pulled out of the river. The
blizzard did not moderate until near morning,
and meantime we clung to the back end of the
wagons, as wet as water could make us.

During the previous day five men had gone
out mto the low hills to the north to get a buf-
falo. They had killed one and had just got it
packed on their horses when the blizzard struck
them. They got separated and lost their way.
Jnst before sunrise two of them came into
camp, two more about ten o'clock, and the last
one at noon. All had thrown away their meat.

It was a busy day repairing wagon-tops and
drying clothes. Newell had taken a relapse,
and the doctor said he would surely die. The
following morning, when we were ready to
start, the doctor said John would not be alive
m one hour from that time, and as no train
stopped for a man to die, Clark asked me and
my friend Phillips to stop and help the Newell
brothers to bury him. We went just back of
his tent, and we started to dig a grave; but as
only one could work at a time we changed every
few minutes, and though we made the dirt fly,
John was ready before we had finished. We
lowered him down, bed and all, and spread an
extra pair of blankets over him, filled the grave
and placed a piece of board, from the foot-
board of the wagon, at the head of his last rest-
mg-place, and upon this we wrote his name
former place of residence, and cause of death'

30 A California Pioneer

And I presume the Nebraska farmers have been
raising wheat over that spot for the last sixty-
five years.

While we were saddling our horses, the two
brothers came, thanked us and said good-by.

"Why good-by?" asked Phillips. "We will
travel together and overtake the train in camp
by eight to-night."

"No," they replied; "we are going back."

And they went, so our train of fifty-two was
now reduced to forty-ninei

Phillips and I found our train in camp at
nine o'clock that night. On the way we counted
the graves made the day before, and were sur-
prised to find there were thirteen of them.
While the blizzard had killed many, it had also
cleared the atmosphere, and checked the epi-
demic to a great extent. Here there was no
wood for fuel, and as the buffalo chips were
soaked to the center, we could not bum them;
but we did not mind the absence of a fire, as we
were prepared with all sorts of bread, sea bis-
cuit, crackers, chipped beef, and so on, and were
happy, for the grass was now fine.

One afternoon as we neared the western edge
of this treeless region, we saw directly in front
of us a clump of trees, which was a welcome
sight, for we would camp beneath tbe spreading
branches and probably find some dry wood. It
proved to consist of about eight or ten big cot-

The Valley of the Platte 31

tonwoods in a low swag in the plain. We drove
under them, delighted.

The horses were started off for the river for
their evening drink by their caret^ers for the
night, and we were all busy with our evening's
work when some one said :

"Where in blazes does that stench come
from? Have we camped by the carcass of a
buffalo?"

All stopped and looked about. Soon some one
yelled :

"Look in the top of these trees !"

All faces were turned in that direction, and
there in the tops of those trees was the explana-
tion. It was an Indian cemetery. We did not
stop to hitch the horses, but twelve or fifteen
men would take hold of a wagon and run it off
to windward about one hundred and fifty yards,
then go for another, and we soon had tents
pitched and fires of buffalo chips burning. It
was the custom of the tribe, through whose coun-
try we were now passing, to wrap a corpse in a
green buffalo hide and lash it to the branches of
the largest trees that could be found. In the
lapse of time the sun, the wind, and the rains
would break the lashing, so that here and there
would be a skull, a hand, or a shrunk shank
sticking out. Bah, what a camping place I

We had now traveled nearly four hundred
miles in the valley of the Platte, — a plain almost
level and from ten to fifteen miles wide, low

32 A California Pioneer

grassy hills. to the north, the river on the south,
with steep bluffs close to the river. Looking
east or west, the only thing to he seen, except
grass, was emigrant trains every few miles, the
farthest being mere dots in the distance, or an
Indian village by the river. But a wonderful
change has come around during the lifetime of
those weary plodders, and there are few left to
tell the story.

It was several years before this country was
settled, on account of the scarcity of timber,
except near the Missouri River. Then a rail-
road was built, and settlers could get coal at the
stations, and the Government gave a certain
sum for every tree that was planted and prop-
erly cared for until it was five years old.

Then the counties took it up and offered a
reward for the man that planted the greatest
number of trees during a specified time. In the
spring of the year this reward was graduated
into first, second, third, and fourth prizes.

Eesult : Now, looking up or down this plain, —
either from the hills on the north or the high
bluffs on the south, — a change from savage to
civilized life is seen.

The farmers have fuel, fencing material, and
wind-breaks; white cottages shine through the
open glades in the timber, where roses bloom,

"And olive yards and orchards green
Along that once drear plain are seen."

The Valley of the Platte 33

The black smoke from the oil burners along
the railroad has succeeded the smoke that curled
from the tops of the Indian tepees along the
river, and the shriek of the locomotive has taken
the place of the crack of the ox-whip.

A few days after leaving the Indian cemetery
we reached a point on the Platte opposite Fort
Laramie.

CHAPTER IV

SWIMMING THE PLATTE

Hebe we had to cross the river, and one hun-
dred miles farther southwest we had to cross
back again, on account of a mountain that
butted up against the river on the north side. It
was generally supposed that there was no pass
through this mountain for wagons, yet there
was, but the inhabitants of Fort Laramie, with
their stores, blacksmith shops, and ferrymen,
were determined to keep this a secret, as there
was five dollars a wagon charged for crossing
the river, besides the other trade that could be
gathered in. The ferry carried wagons only,
and we had to cross with our horses about two
hundred yards above the ferry, there being at
that point a good place to enter the stream, and
a similar place to leave it on the other side.
The river was about a half-mile wide, running
quicksand and ice water from the melting snow
of the Rockies. It should here be stated that
it is very difficult to get a band of horses to
cross a stream where they are compelled to
swim, and it is practically impossible to do so,
unless they have a leader to show them the way

34

Swimming the Platte 35

over. I had one horse named Pompey (Pomp),
a big, sturdy, black animal, which had been bred
and raised near Beloit, on the Rock River. He
was accustomed to the water, and was not only
a very rapid but a very strong swimmer, his
extra girth holding him well up on the surface.
I had used him to lead the band in crossing the
Cedar, the Des Moines, and the Loup rivers,
but I now refused to lead the band across the
Platte, as I thought I had done my share; so
I told Captain Clark to get some one else.

We first put the horses in the river three
times, and each time, having no leader, they
came back on the same side. ■ The wagons had
all been carried across on the ferry, and as no
one would undertake to lead the horses, I finally
consented to try it. We took the horses farther
up-stream for a new attempt. The place se-
lected for the start looked the same as below,
— shallow at the shore and then down gradually
to deep water, — ^but when Pomp stepped off the
low bank he went down out of sight, and I with
him. When we came to the surface my hat,
which was the only garment I had on when I
entered the water, was sailing merrily down-
stream and may be going yet, for all I know.
I grabbed Pomp by the tail with my left hand,
and in order not to encumber him with my
weight, I used my feet in swimming. In my
right hand I held a long stick, with which I kept
tapping him on the nose on the down-river side.

36 A California Pioneer

so as to make him lay quartering up-stream.
The other horses, were rushed in as soon as I
was fairly started, and with the band about
twenty feet behind me, we went all right until
we reached about the middle of the river. At
this point the horses, frightened at some float-
ing object in the water, stampeded, and before
I realized the danger, they were practically on
top of me, and one of them, reaching over my
head and to Pomp's back, forced both Pomp and
myself beneath the surface of the murky waters.
Without a leader, the band now stopped and
began to "mill" (go around and around in a
close pack), while old Pomp and I were under-
neath, among their flying feet. I managed to
get hold of the mane of one horse, and squeezed
my head above the pack, which was now moving
rapidly down-stream with the current. It did
not require long for me to take in the situation.
The river at this point followed a straight
course to the eastward, but about half a mile
below the ferry it turned abruptly toward the
south. The current, of course, did not turn
around this curve, but kept straight ahead and
impinged on the east side against a perpendicu-
lar bank fifteen or twenty feet high, from which
great chunks of earth were falling, as the cur-
rent struck and undermined it, while nearby
were whirlpools and eddies that would quickly
swamp and drown any land animal. I feared
that the entire band of horses, as well as the

Swimming the Platte 37

leader, would be lost in these swirling waters,
and as I was powerless to do anything to pre-
vent this, I determined to save myself, if pos-
sible, though the chance seemed slim enough.

I knew that if I attempted to swim directly
toward the shore the horses would overtake me
in a few seconds and we would all go into the
whirlpool together. I scrambled onto the back
of one horse and then stepped from one to an-
other, as a boy would cross over a lot of logs in
a pond, until I reached the one farthest down
the stream. I then dived into the river and
swam rapidly down-stream under water as long
as I could hold my breath. Upon coming to the
surface I looked back for the horses. Old
Pomp had got to the surface, and upon seeing
a lot of government horses upon the other side
of the river, which had evidently been driven
there to decoy the band, was heading for the
shore and I now knew that the horses were
safe, but how about Carr Abbott?

It is a matter of common knowledge that when
a stream is rising it is higher in the middle and
lowest at the shores, while the situation is just
the reverse when it is falling; and in the case
of a large river the extent of the difference will
very much surprise one who has never before
actually observed it. The Platte was now a
raging torrent, yet it was in fact falling, and I
therefore had against me the additional circum-

38 A California Pioneer

stance that I was in a considerable depression,
or trongh, from whicli I had to "climb out."

It takes me some time to write it, but it took
only a few seconds for me to think and act. I
placed my body quartering up-stream, in order
to get the aid of the current in driving me shore-
ward, and here made the most desperate strug-
gle for life I ever had. There was a clump of
willow brush just above the turn in the river to
which I have referred, and I concluded that I
must reach that clump of brush or there was
absolutely no hope of my reaching shore at all.
I realized also that the ice water in which I
had now been floundering for some time was
rapidly sapping my vitality, and I fought as
only a drowning man can fight. There were
about twenty soldiers following along the bank
and throwing anything and everything they
could get hold of out into the water for me to
grasp. I yelled to them to stop, as I had to
cross the current and my progress would be
impeded by anything in my way, while my get-
ting hold of any floating object would not assist
me to the shore. In passing the willow brush,
by probably the longest "reach" I ever made, I
caught hold of a twig not larger than a lead
pencil; but it held. And by pulling it down I
was able to catch it higher up where it was
larger, and in two or three more grabs I had
hold of it where it was two inches in diameter,
and was saved.

Swimming the Platte 39

The soldiers beat their way through the
brush, and as they were unable to reach me
directly, they quickly cut off the limb to which
I was clinging and drew me to the bank. I was,
of course, as stiff as a poker, and was altogether
unable to stand; but they carried me to an
Indian tepee nearby, and the squaw spread a
buffalo robe by the fire, while the soldiers
rubbed me until I was able to walk.

In the meantime Brother Alvin had crossed
the river, bringing my clothes with him. These
were quickly put on, and as our train was now
passing, I climbed into the wagon. The grass
was so short hereabouts that we drove on up
the river about two miles and went into camp
in a grove on the river bank, where we found
plenty of dry wood, and of course an abundance
of the roiled water of the Platte. In addition
to the little fires that were used by the different
messes for cooking, we had a big log-fire, around
which we sat and discussed the situation.

There was, of course, the usual growling and
grumbling among the dissatisfied. Under the
restraint of friends and society, men behave
fairly well, but away from that influence, if
there is any cussedness in them, it is bound to
come to the surface. Some of our company
said we were going too slowly and the gold
would all be dug out of California before we got
there; others said we were going too fast and
we would kill our horses and not get there at all,

40 A California Pioneer

unless we got tliere on foot. Clark, who was
sitting on a stump, after listening to tliis com-
plaining for a while finally got up and said :

"I have heard all the growl I am going to
hear. To-morrow morning I start with my two
teams at the usual time, and all who want to
go faster, get up early and be off; those who
want to go slower, fall in behind, but I want
to tell you something you probably have not
thought of: We shall have to swim back over
the Platte, and probably the Green will have to
be ferried and swum, and if there are three com-
panies, there will have to be three men to swim
to lead the band, and the probabilities are that
Carr Abbott will do no more swimming. Good
night."

And he went to his tent.

Not a word more was said, but next morning
we all rolled out together.

The two streams of emigration, — that which
crossed the Missouri at St. Joseph below the
mouth of the Platte and that which reached
Laramie from the north, — had now merged, and
as the ferry at the upper crossing could not
handle the outfits as fast as they came, it was
necessary to register with the ferryman, and
for each train to take its turn. In this situation
Clark sent Newcomb on horseback to make the
one hundred and twenty-five miles' distance to
the ferry, with instructions to make the trip as
fast as his horse could carry him. Arriving at

Swimming the Platte 41

the ferry, Newcomb informed the ferryman that
he wanted to register the Clark Company of ten
wagons.

"Where is your company?" asked the ferry-
man.

"Just down the river, a bit outside this
crowd, where the feed is better than it is here,"
said Newcomb.

Our train was at once registered, although it
was nearly one hundred miles away, and as a
result of this foresight on the part of Clark,
we had to wait but three days at the ferry. The
next train ahead of us was from Kentucky and
had about eighty head of horses. Our horses
were in a close band just behind, with all hands
standing around them, ready to move as soon
as the Kentuckians were out of the way. They
put their horses into the river several times,
but they came out on the same side each time.
Then a big, stout rider, mounted with saddle,
bridle, big spurs, clothes, and all, rode into the
river, and the remainder of the horses followed ;
but the leader sank lower and lower and finally,
when a little more than haK-way across, both
man and horse went out of sight and were not
seen again ; but the balance of the horses crossed
over aU right.

I was now undressing to take our band across,
when brother Alvin and Phillips came to me and
begged me not to make the attempt; but I had
learned how to swim rivers and now had no

42 A California Pioneer

fears. I took the precaution this time to leave
my hat with brother Alvin, for there was no
place nearer than Salt Lake City where I could
get another one if I lost this. Again I got old
Pomp out into the stream, and with a long stick
I guided him, holding his tail with my left hand
when tapping his nose with the stick, and carry-
ing the stick between my teeth when not guid-
ing him, thus enabling myself to use one hand
and both feet in swimming. If the band got
within thirty feet of me, I would give old Pomp
a crack with my long stick, and he would draw
away from the others. When his forefeet struck
the long beach on the opposite bank, I mounted
him and rode up the bank, the band following,
while the men on the other shore sang or yeUed :

"One more river to cross!"

On the following day we reached the Sweet-
water, a tributary of the Platte, and were now
in the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains. The
South Pass, so-called, is a little over twenty
miles wide, and is a gently undulating grassy
plain until the summit is reached, over one hun-
dred miles west. The river runs close to the
north side of this plain, at the foot of a long
spur of the Rockies, which is for the greater
part of the way almost perpendicular. On the
south the mountain is not so steep, but, as it
slopes to the north, the canyons and benches
were covered with snow.

There was one man in our company by the

Swimming the Platte 43

name of Losee. He was the oldest member of
our company, and rather ilUterate. He had two
sons,— one about eighteen years of age, the
other about twenty. When we were well up
toward the summit and were one evening sitting
around the big camp-fire talking about the snow
on the opposite side of the plain, old Losee
finally could stand it no longer, and he called
us a pack of damned fools for our reference to
this snow, saying: "That is white rocks. If it
was snow it would melt, for it is at least two
thousand feet nearer the sun than it is here, and
of course warmer, and would melt."

After the laugh was over, the oldest Losee
boy said he would go over there in the morning
and get some of that snow in order to convince
the old man. Clark, who seldom joined in the
camp-fire conversation, said :

' ' Young man, do not go. That snow is a long
way up the mountain after you cross the plain.
You could not reach it before sundown; then
you would be thirty miles south of here and we
would be thirty miles west."

"When morning came young Losee was gone.
He had not reached us the next morning, but
as we were eatiag lunch, and old man Losee and
the younger son were getting ready to go back
and try to find him, he came into camp. He was
plied with so many questions that he did not try
to answer any of them, but just said:
"Jim, give me something to eat."

44 A California Pioneer

At two o'clock that afternoon (about June
25tli) we reached tlie summit, where we stopped
and took a good look at the western slope of the
backbone of the Continent. The country was
rough and in the distance looked black, being
covered with grease wood and wild sage, with
isolated glades of grass and numerous peaks of
volcanic slag. The second night on the west
side we camped on the bank of a small stream
called the Big Sandy, a tributary of the Green
Eiver. Our camp locator had found a nice
patch of grass, about a mile and a half to the
north of the road, and was at the little stream
awaiting our coming.

CHAPTEE V

THE GEAY WOLF

Fbom the time we crossed the Sweetwater
until we reached Salt Lake we were compeUed
to put out a guard of four men every night, to
protect our horses from the attacks of the big
gray wolves with which that country was in-
fested. A smaller number of men would not
engage in this service because of the danger,
and upon the particular night to which I am
now to refer, I was to be one of the herders.

The three men who were to accompany me got
started ahead of me, and before I reached the
feeding ground, which was distant about two
miles from our camp, a thick fog had drifted in,
makmg it impossible to see any considerable
distance.

It was rather a cabn night, although there
was a slight breeze blowing, and as it was not
yet cold, I carried my overcoat on my arm.' I
also had a six-shooter and a government musket
(powder and ball), and, in an endeavor to locate
my companions, I fired the musket, but, getting
no response, I reloaded the musket and started
back (as I supposed) toward camp. I should

4S

46 A Calif ornia Pioneer

have gone south, but, as I afterwards ascer-
tained, I actually was traveling due west, and
instead of reaching our camp, or the Emigrant
Road, the course I took was parallel to that
road. The night was very dark, and, while I
was always hoping to reach camp or the road,
I was puzzled by the distance I apparently had
covered without reaching either.

Suddenly, about midnight, I heard the howl of
a wolf, and it almost froze me in my tracks. I
could not tell the distance from which this
dreadful sound came, but /I judged it to have
been perhaps a mile. I knew that when one of
these animals either sights or scents game he
dares not attack alone, he howls for assistance,
and immediately starts toward the game. Very
soon I heard another wolf, somewhat farther
away, answer and apparently start in the direc-
tion of the leader. I stopped and listened, and
presently I heard wolves howUng from five or
six different points, and apparently getting
nearer.

There was, of course, not a tree in this whole
region, and not thinking of anything better to
do, I started to run, yet not knowing where, for
the night was by this time so dark that I could
not see twenty feet before me. I stumbled along
as best I could over the short brush, and at
length ran directly into a clump of grease wood,
whose short, stiff thorns badly scratched my

The Gray Wolf 47

hands and face, before I fell headlong over a
clump of wild sage.

The howKng of the wolves, which was inces-
sfntly kept up, now indicated with certainty
fihat the pack was concentrating, and as it grew
more distinct, I knew that the beasts of prey
were rapidly approaching their supper feast. I
had run perhaps half a mile and by this time
was panting perceptibly; I was quite exhausted,
and my underclothing was soaked with perspi-
ration, caused not perhaps so much by my exer-
tions as by the imminent danger with which I
was threatened,
_ As I had kept warm by running, I still car-
ried my overcoat on my arm, and now, in order
to lighten my load, I dropped it. In addition
to lightening my load the dropping of my over-
coat had another effect, for very shortly I heard
the wolves tearing it and snarling over it, and
this delayed them for a few moments in their
pursuit. I quickly concluded that it was of no
use to run farther, that it was inevitable I must
hght it out sooner or later; and I thought that
if I could get my breath before they reached
me, and could succeed in killing one of them
they might follow their well-known habit of
pouncing upon and devouring their dead or
wounded fellow, which might afford me an op-
portunity of escape,— although I knew not how
I immediately got down to a slow walk, and
I had not gone a dozen steps when I found be-

48 A California Pioneer

fore me one of those volcanic upheavals wMch I
have heretofore mentioned. There was a crev-
ice or break in this not more than four feet wide
at the entrance, and into this I quickly stepped.

The width of this break or crevice was such
that I could be attacked but from one side,
and I felt that, at the least, I would have the
satisfaction of killing one or more of my pur-
suers before they reached me, and if they
stopped to devour the slain, some way out might
be found for me ; although it must be conceded
that my prospects looked dismal enough.

It should be remembered that this was before
the day of repeating weapons. Had I been
armed with a modern Winchester, the contest
would have been unequal enough, but I would
still have had a chance ; with weapons, however,
that could be reloaded only by means of powder
and ball, the situation was, of course, altogether
different.

I did not stop at the entrance of this crevice,
but kept on walking along it, though unable to
see either where it stopped or whither it led.
It was quite steep, and got narrower as I ad-
vanced, until I presently found my progress
almost shut off by a big rock jutting out about
two feet from the one side into the crevice. I
found that by rolling a rock about eighteen
inches in diameter against its perpendicular
side, I was able to get my hands on the upper

The Gray Wolf 49

edge. Placing my rifle and pistol on top of the
rock, I drew myself up as quickly as I could.

It proved none too soon; for I liad hardly
reached my perch when this pack of timber
wolves, — fifteen or twenty in all, — came rushing
up the crevice. They immediately located my
position, and during the entire night they were
one after another continually making the most
desperate attempts to reach the top of the rock
upon which I was perched, falling back each
time with snarls of rage.

Why did I not shoot? There were two rea-
sons. In the first place it was now bitter cold,
and my fingers were so stiff that it would have
been difficult, if not quite impossible, to reload,
and, agaia, I thought that by some possibility
one more agile than the rest might reach my
place of refuge, and I kept my weapons loaded
for such an emergency. In order to keep from
freezing, I would rest the muzzle of the rifle
on the rock, and, holding the breech in my hand,
would "slap" the soles of my shoes upon the
hard stone ; then I would lay the rifle down and
"slap" my arms around my body. And dur-
ing all this time the wolf orchestra played on
in the pit below me, with the glaring eyes of
those fifteen or twenty gray devils, like balls of
fire, for footlights.

It does not take long to tell this harrowing
experience, but it was by far the longest and
bitterest night of my life. I got very tired of

50 A Calif omia Pioneer

this hard work which was necessary to keep me
from freezing, for I was eight thousand feet
above sea level, — where there is frost every
night of the year, — a cold wind was blowing,
my garments were soaked, and it seemed as if
daylight would never, never come. I thought
there must be something wrong with the world-
machinery, that the planet must have jumped a
cog ; but blessed daylight did come at last, and
with its coming the cowardly pack of devils, —
which had tortured me for what seemed to be
an age, — slunk away.

Assuring myself that they had abandoned the
attack, I got down from my perch and made my
way to the summit of this kopje, as they would
call it in South Africa. It proved to be about
forty or fifty feet high, three hundred feet wide
and about one hundred and fifty yards long
with perpendicular sides, a mass of volcanic
slag.

I immediately looked for the smoke of some
camp fire, or the dust from a passing train, but,
as it proved, I had completely lost my bearings,
and was, in fact, looking north instead of south.
Finally, upon turning around, I saw at some
distance the dust from a passing train, but could
not see the train itself, because of the rough-
ness of the country. It was not yet sun-up
and it seemed to me that this train was headed
eastward; but I was in a mood for investigat-
ing, — hungry, tired, and with the bottoms of my

The Gray Wolf 51

feet covered with blood blisters, — so I hobbled
toward this passing streak of dust nearly two
miles away.

It proved to be a small train of three wagons
(ox teams) and a small band of loose cattle,
with two men on horseback driving the cattle.
I hailed them and inquired if they had given
up their California trip, and were going back
to the States. They eyed me a few seconds.
Then one of them said :

"Young man, you are lost. We are going
west. Don't you belong to the Clark outfit?"

"Yes, I do," I replied.

"Well," said he, "all the men of your com-
pany, except the Captain and doctor, are out
hunting for your bones. They heard a big pack
of wolves after you last night, and believe that
you were surely killed. ' '

He then told me it was about six miles back
to where our camp was, and for me to keep the
road, even if it did look like going west to me.
Well, of all the distance for six miles' walk!
The night had surely been long, but those miles
seemed to me like a hoop without an end.

Finally, upon reaching the crest of a little
ridge, I came in sight of our camp, and observed
Clark standing by the camp fire. As soon as he
caught sight of me he got his rifle and fired it,
that being the signal they had agreed upon in
case my bones were found. They were all sure
I was dead, and there was of course not one

52 A California Pioneer

chance in a thousand of finding anytMng of
one's remains in that rough, sage-brush
country.

On reaching camp I drank a cup of coffee, and
Ijdng down in our tent, went to sleep. The doc-
tor came in, pulled off my shoes, bathed my feet
and cut open the blood blisters, without even
awakening me during the operation. Phillips
soon came in from the search and asked Clark
who had found my bones, and if they had been
brought in.

"Yes," answered Clark; "they are brought
in. They are in that tent. Take a look at
them."

Phillips threw back the flap of the tent and
took a look. He came back grinning, and said:

"Well, I'll be d ! Who found himl"

CHAPTER VI

WESTWAED

When- we reached Salt Lake City, the Clark
Company broke up into the original six compa-
nies of which it had been composed, each con-
sisting of from six to twelve men.

Our company consisted of Bemis, Mellon, Vet-
ter, Nathan Baker, Ben Baker, Job Strange,
Phillips, Casey, Redington, the doctor, whose
name I never knew, my brother Alvin, and my-
self, — its original members.

From Salt Lake City there were two routes
westward, the main traveled road around the
north end of the lake, and the other, called the
"Southern Route," around the south end of the
lake, — the southern being about one hundred
miles shorter than the main road, but necessi-
tating the crossing of a ninety-mile desert.
Both routes again merged at the Carson River.
Two or three of the companies went by the
shorter route, while our company determined
to take the main traveled way.

One of the companies that took the shorter
route was composed of a man by the name of
Marsh, another by the name of Allen, and four

53

54 A California Pioneer

other men wlioin Allen and Marsh had taken
into their company upon the payment of a stipu-
lated sum of money. Marsh was a short, thick-
set man, and as tough as a pine nut, while Allen
was over six feet tall, rather slim, and was,
moreover, the most profane man who ever hon-
ored me with his acquaintance.

Happening to meet Marsh in Sacramento two
years later, I asked him how he got along on
the ninety-mile desert. He replied :

"Bad."

He then told me that they had started out
early in the morning expecting to get across the
desert by the following morning, but, as teams
do not travel as fast by night as they seem to,
their expectations were disappointed, and by
eleven o'clock of the following morning all their
horses lay dead in their tracks, and the canteens
were empty ; that they had then taken a small
quantity of food from their wagons and started
for the shore (as the edge of the desert was
called), intending to refresh themselves at the
big spring and then return to their outfit, re-
moving and taking away with them all the food
they could carry; that while the road was good
and hard, being composed of mixed sand and
salt, it gleamed and glistened in the sun, and
the heat was as vicious as it was bewildering,
and finally Allen and one of the other men
dropped to the ground exhausted, when, to the

Westward 55

amusement of all the others, Allen began to
pray:

' ' Lord Almighty, send us just one drop of
rain 1 ' '

Immediately from a few fleecy clouds scat-
tering raindrops began to fall, and as AUen and
his companion had a rubber blanket, they
quickly spread it out. But not a sufficient quan-
tity of water fell to admit of its running to-
gether.

"The damphool," said Marsh; "might just
as well have prayed for a barrel of water as
for a drop, for he got ten times as much as he
asked for."

Marsh and the other three taen reached the
spring, and after resting a few minutes, filled
their canteens and started back. When the cool
of the evening set in Allen and his companion
were revived and had started on, and a little
after dark they were met by Marsh and the
others, were given water, and then all returned
to the wagon, only to find that some thieving
emigrant had stolen everything that was eat-
able. Taking their rifles, they returned to the
water, filled their canteens, and now, without an
ounce of food, again took up the trail for "the
land of gold," — the distance to the junction of
the roads, where it would be possible to pro-
cure food, being nearly three hundred miles.
On the way they shot a sage hen, a prairie dog,
and two pigeons, all of which were quickly de-

56 A California Pioneer

voured, and thus they poked along, witli a cane
in each hand, until they reached the junction
where they obtained food from the traders lo-
cated there.

Having disposed of Marsh's difficulties, I now
return to my own.

By the time we reached the Humboldt Eiver
cholera had broken out among the emigrants ;
and here our real trouble commenced, for my
brother Alvin was stricken.

We laid over here for a day, in order to rest
our horses and to do what we could for Alvin.
Our partners, Mellon and Vetter, had thus far
kept the original compact made by us in Wis-
consin; but in the face of the present difficulties
the "yellow streak" in both of their composi-
tions manifested itself, for they declared that
they were going to take their horses and their
half of our supplies and go on, magnanimously
offering to leave the tent for the use of my sick
brother.

"Yes," said I, "but how about our agree-
ment to stick together, sick or well, until we
reached California?"

They replied by saying that if they remained
there five or ten days the provisions might give
out, and again declared that they were going
to pack their horses and leave.

"That," I said, "is exactly what I would do
if I were like you ; but if you were in my place
and I in yours, I would continue right along

Westward 57

taking my turn at camp duty and caring for
the sick. ' ' Then I added : * * When you were in
Wisconsin and under the restraint of law and
the influence of friends and society, you were
good fellows, but here, where there is neither
law nor society, your natural cussedness comes
to the surface, and you care for no one but your-
selves."

I further reminded them that I had swum
every river to lead the horses, that I had re-
mained behind to dig a grave and bury the dead,
and had been compelled to travel in the night to
overtake the train, while they had lain comfort-
ably in their tent, and added:

"And now, with my brother at the point of
death, you propose to break up the team and
desert us four hundred miles from our journey's
end."

The doctor, who had been listening to our
conversation, here interjected :

"Mr. Mellon, you certainly will not break up
the team and leave the Abbott boys in this fix.
I have heard enough of this rot. ' '

But Mellon replied :

"Well, I am going."

Mellon and Vetter proposed to make a pair
of pack saddles and, as there was no other ma-
terial at hand,. I suggested that they use for
this purpose one of the front wheels of our
wagon and a piece of the wagon box, which sug-

58 A California Pioneer

gestion was met by several of the men stand-
ing by with tbe remark:

"Carr, I would not give tbe scamps any-
thing " But the two deserters took the wheel,
and after I had cut the wagon bed in halves they
used some of the discarded boards, completed
their pack saddles and got away at sundown,
evidently not desiring to camp amid such un-
congenial surroundings. I never saw nor heard
of either of these worthies again.

Of course I could not expect the other six
men of our party to delay here on account of
Alvin's sickness,— for they were under no ob-
ligation to do so, not having been parties to the
original agreement to "stick together, sick or
well,"— and the doctor suggested that I con-
struct a cart out of the hind wheels of the
Wagon, so that Alvin could be earned, and we
could go along with them. The doctor added
that Alvin would be more liable to recover under
his care than lying here in a hot tent. I adopted
this suggestion, and from another company
camped nearby I borrowed a saw, which was not
only dull but was of the cross-cut variety, and
with this cross-cut saw I ripped the dry, hard
wagon-tongue into strips, which I roughly fash-
ioned into shafts, in order that I might work
one of our horses at a time. _

As it was necessary for me to give Alvin
mediciae every hour, and as I had no right to
delay the departure of the rest of our company,

Westward 59

I did not go to bed that night, but worked upon
this cart and finished it at alaout three o'clock
in the morning. I had now been two days and
nearly two nights without sleep, and, to use
a present-day expression, I was "all in." So,
after giving Alvin his medicine, I sat down to
rest, and fell asleep.

Because of my being at work that night, it
was not thought necessary to have a guard out
to watch for prowlers who might be about for
the purpose of stealing food; but while I slept
some thieving emigrants slipped into our camp
and made away with all of our principal articles
of food. Upon taking an account of our larder,
we found that by limiting each man to one
spoonful of flour, on« spoonful of meal, and
half an ounce of dried beef made into gruel, to
each meal, we had sufficient food left to last
until we should reach the forty-five mile desert
between the Sink of the Humboldt and the Car-
son River.

The doctor now remarked that, as there was
now nothing to eat, "we could all mess to-
gether, ' ' and he regularly measured out to each
man his pint cup of gruel, — and was careful
that each got his share. Many times I have
been asked how it happened that such a scarcity
of food existed among the emigrants in 1850.
The explanation is simple, and it is this :

In 1849, because of the rush to the gold mines
from all the countries of the world, every train

60 A California Pioneer

crossing tlie plains took one year's supply of
provisions, anticipating a scarcity in California,
by reason of the enormous influx of people. In
1850, however, nearly one-half of the trains did
not take enough food, thinking they could ob-
tain it on the way, and no train took too much, —
and the saying that "hungry men will steal"
was just as true then as it is now.

We were now ready for the road. Alvin was
lifted into the cart, Pomp was put between the
shafts, and our other horse Bob was hitched
behind. Pomp did not require a driver and
readily followed behind one of the wagons,
while, in order to save horse-flesh, I walked.
Before we reached the Humboldt River our road
led us through what was then known as Decep-
tion Valley, and we were now traveling nearly
south along the Humboldt River and toward
the desert.

After we had been three or four days on the
way we made camp in a little ox-bow bend of the
river, the open end of the bow, where it joined
the mainland, being not more than fifty or sixty
yards wide. By this time Alvin was con-
valescent, and the doctor said he would "make
a live of it" providing "he did not eat too
much." Considering the condition of our com-
missary, Alvin was now out of all danger, for
the chance or probability of his eating too much
was what might be called highly contingent.

Just before sunset a small company came

Westward 61

along and asked the privilege of camping with
us for the night, as we were now in the country
of the Piute Indians. These lousy vagabonds
were not regarded as warriors or fighters, hut
they were generally conceded to be the worst
thieves between the Missouri and the Sacra-
mento. Their method of stealing stock was to
send a few "braves" to crawl among the herd
while grazing at night and cut the hobbles,
whereupon the other members of the gang
would dash toward the horses, or cattle, and
with unearthly yells stampede the stock and
run it off into the mountains. We were, there-
fore, compelled to put out a guard to protect
our stock, and on this particular night I was
on guard duty with a young man from the other
company.

We were stationed upon opposite sides of this
narrow neck of land to which I have referred,
near the river, and about midnight I heard my
companion fire. It was so dark that as I hailed
him and went towards him I could just discern
the outline of his body. He told me he had
shot an Indian, but that the reprobate (that
was not the word he used) had got in the first
shot.

"Just look at that arrow," said he.

I found that an arrow had passed through
his coat collar in front, then through his over-
shirt above the shoulder, and then through the
coat collar at the back, — and there it hung. He

62 A California Pioneer

said the Indian was cutting the hobbles from
the horses when he fired, and that the Indian
had fallen, but had picked himself up and ran.
Upon the coming of daylight we followed a
trail of blood for about sixty yards and there
found "our Indian," who, in the words of Mark
Twain, was * * the deadest man that ever lived. ' '

CHAPTER VII

THE DESEET

The Sink of the Humboldt, as the name im-
plies, is a point out in the desert where the
waters of the Humboldt Eiver disappear in the
sands.

From the southern extremity of the Sink,
and extending for a distance of approximately
thirty miles, the surface or floor of the desert
was, comparatively speaking, quite level, and
it was, practically speaking, as hard and smooth
as a concrete pavement, caused in all prob-
ability by some chemical substance contained
in the receding waters. The last fifteen miles,
however, was an almost unbroken stretch of
billows of sand, in which a horse's hoof would
sink and be covered at every step, and at a
point about five miles out in this sand, and
distant about ten miles from the Carson Eiver,
was a spot then known as Destruction Flat.

Before reaching the Sink we had rested a
day at a place called "The Meadows"; and as
there was, of course, no horse feed between this
point and the Carson Eiver, we cut and tied
into bundles some of the tall grass that grew

63

64 A California Pioneer

here luxuriantly, and carried this with us for
use in crossing the desert.

We left the southern end of the Sink, and
started out upon the desert at about eleven
o'clock in the morning, expecting that by-
traveling into the night we would be able to
reach the Carson Eiver before the heat of the
following day; but we here made a serious
blunder, because we should have started much
earlier, for we were forced to stop and rest
after we had traveled about twenty-eight
miles, — ^being yet two miles distant from the
stretch of soft shifting sand. By sunup the
next morning we were again on our way; but
we had not traveled more than two or three
miles into this soft sand when our teams began
to give out and lie down.

Numerous buzzards had been sailing along
behind us, watching and waiting for man or
beast to fall. Three of the four horses be-
longing to Bemis, Redington, and the Baker
boys were the first to drop. They lay down in
their harness, and being unable to get up, were
quickly shot, in order to end their misery. A
few tin dishes were then tied upon the back
of the remaining horse; whereupon each of
these men put on his best clothes, and, with one
pair of blankets each, they were ready to pur-
sue their journey. Iledington alone retained
his pistol.

A little farther on five of the six horses be-

The Desert 65

longing to the other outfit went the same way.
The two horses belonging to Alvin and me were
still aJive and able to move, which was due no
doubt to the fact that they had worked only on
alternate days from the time we reached the
Humboldt River.

We plodded slowly along until about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon, at which time we
reached Destruction Flat, which, as I have here-
tofore stated, was five miles out in the sand,
and distant ten miles from the Carson River.

Destruction Flat was well named, for I here
observed more misery and desolation and hope-
lessness than I had ever seen before, or than I
have seen since.

The Flat comprised about two acres. It was
practically destitute of sand, but had been
tramped until it was covered with a thick layer
of dust. Upon every hand there were evidences
that many emigrants had stopped to rest, and
their teams had lain down never to get up.
There were perhaps forty or fifty canvas-cov-
ered wagons and probably one hundred head of
horses and oxen, counting both dead and alive.
In these wagons were trunks and clothing, mat-
tresses, mining tools (everything but food),
which had been hastily abandoned by the own-
ers in their anxiety to reach the Carson River
and water, and to leave behind them this hell
hole of the desert.

Here I saw a number of ox teams of five or

66 A California Pioneer

six pairs eacli, lying down in their yokes,—
some of them dead, some of them with their
swollen tongues lying extended out into the
dust, and moaning and groaning as pitifully as
one of our own kind, — unable to avoid the
almost perpendicular rays of the sun now beat-
ing upon this spot with a fury almost inde-
scribable. The owners of these animals had
not delayed their flight long enough to end the
misery of the poor dumb brutes. There were
loose horses and oxen wandering listlessly
about, and in the first part of the day this loose
stock, in an endeavor to escape the fierce heat
that beat down as if coming from a furnace,
would huddle together on the western side of
the high-topped wagons, and there lie down;
and when the sun passed its meridian height
those yet alive and able to move would shift
their position and pile up on the eastern sides
of the wagons, and about some of the wagons
the accumulation of dead horses and oxen
reached as high as the tops of the wheels. In
two instances I observed wagons at each end of
which the accumulation of dead animals ren-
dered it possible for oxen to clinch over them,
and at each end of both of these wagons an ox,
in order to get the slight shade afforded by the
wagon covering, had climbed up and had got the
front half of his body under the canvas, — and
there had died.

The stench from these dead animals was

The Desert 67

stifling, and the groans of the dying, distress-
ing; a myriad of buzzards hovered around,
alighting now and then to pick out the eyes of
the prostrate, whether dead or alive, while the
terrific waves of heat, as from a furnace, drifted
over the Flat.

Redington and I went among the dying ani-
mals and gave each one a bullet in the brain, as
long as our bullets lasted, and then threw our
pistols away. Our canteens, which we had filled
at the Sink, were, of course, long since empty,
and as we were entirely without food of any
kind, Redington and I poked around in the
dust, finding by this means a few bacon rinds,
which the doctor divided among the members
of our company, allowing each a piece about
two inches long, which, by his orders, were
sucked.

By way of diversion Eedingtoii and I then
set fire to two or three of the abandoned wag-
ons, whereupon the doctor said:

"If you can do mischief, you can go to the
river for water. You are the two strongest
men in the company, and there are two men
here who, unless they get water, will never live
to reach the Carson River. You go on ahead,
and as soon as it gets cool this evening we will,
if possible, start along and meet you."

Redington was about six feet two inches tall,
raw-boned and muscular, and by far the best-
preserved man in our company. Therefore, f ol-

68 'A California Pioneer

lowing this suggestion of the doctor's, he and
I rummaged around in one of those abandoned
wagons, and there found a ten-gallon can, with
a cover and a ligM tent pole. With these we
set out for water, the doctor warning us not
to speak to each other until we reached the
river, as conversation would aggravate our

thirst.

A few yards soutli of the Flat there was a
roll of sand some fifteen or twenty feet high,
and here Redington and I stopped to take a last
look at Destruction Flat. There was our little
company, lying in the shade of a wagon at the
farther end of the Flat, and their woe-begone
appearance, together with the surroundings that
I have heretofore mentioned, made the most
distressing scene man ever looked upon. After
briefly contemplating this picture, Redington
and I turned away in silence toward the river,
our shoes at each step sinking to their tops
in the sand.

At a point about four miles on our way we
came upon a stake by the side of a road, with a
finger-board nailed to it, pointing eastwardly,
along a dim trail, and bearing the single word
"Water."

Redington, following the injunction of the
doctor not to converse, wrote upon his memo-
randum book:

"Let's take the trail."

In answer I wrote: "Let's keep the road.

The Desert 69

If we take the trail, get lost and perish, some
of our party will also die for want of water."

Whereupon Redington wrote in answer:

"The trail crosses that high ridge, and if we
see no signs of water when we get there, we
will strike the road one mile farther south,
which will still be in sight."

We took this trail, and reaching the ridge,
found below it a depression about two acres in
extent and about one hundred feet below us,
which was filled with water as black as ink,
caused probably by some mineral substance
in its composition. At the north end of this
lake there was a perpendicular cliff of sand
rock, and the trail zigzagged down a very steep
bank. We stopped and rested here, of course
knowing that if we drank any of that water we
would probably remain there. As we were get-
ting up to start again Redington shouted:

"I can see clear water!"

I patted my mouth to indicate "keep your's
shut"; but he shouted:

"Never mind! Do you see that streak of
white from the sand cliff running out into the
lake? That is clear water sure."

We quickly made our way down the trail and
here observed many footprints, both going and
coming, along the narrow beach at the edge of
the lake, and at the foot of this sand cliff was
a stream of clear, cool water that would fill a
four inch pipe. We first dipped water with the

70 A California Pioneer

can cover and poured it on our wrists, and it
was like electricity, for we could feel it to our
very toes ; then we washed our hands and faces;
rinsed out our mouths, and swallowed a few
drops, after which we washed out the caii, put
about a quart of water in it, and set it out in the
sun to take the chill off. From this we took a
few drops at a time until we were able to drink
half a teacup full, which took us about an hour.
We then filled the can and ran the tent pole
through the handle and started back for the
Flat. Redington, being taller than I, followed
behind, with the pole on his shoulder, while I
went ahead with the other end in my hand,
the weight we were carrying about ninety
pounds; but the forty-five pounds on my end
was the heaviest forty-five pounds I ever
tackled. It is not to be wondered at that this
load seemed heavy when it is considered that
we had been sixteen days on gruel, had been
famished for thirty-six hours, and were a hun-
dred feet below the general level of the coun-
try, with not a breath of air stirring, and en-
veloped in a fierce desert heat. On reaching
the top of the ridge we found a slight breeze
blowing, and here we sat down to rest, while
Redington turned a liberal drink into the can
cover and proposed:

"Here's to the boys on Destruction Flat!"
This I followed with a less copious draught
and the proposal:

The Desert 71

"Here's to your wife and my best girl back
in Wisconsin ! ' '

We were now ready to start back for the Flat,
which was only five miles through the sand, in-
stead of ten miles as would have been the dis-
tance had we gone direct to the Carson Eiver
for water. I hasten to get away from this in-
fernal desert and those sad memories of the
past, and will now only observe that after many
rests we reached the Flat about half an hour
before sundown, and the surprise and joy on
the faces of our little company will remain with
me as long as I remain an inhabitant of this
terrestrial sphere.

We were assailed with questions: "Where
did you get it?" "Have you been to the river
and back in this time?" To which Kedington
repKed :

"I'll tell you to-morrow."

The doctor now treated the other men as we
had treated ourselves at the spring, and after
filling our canteens we had about one and a
half gallons left for each of the horses, which
saved their lives. Shortly after dark we were
again ready to start on our journey. Alvin,
who was not yet completely restored to health,
was placed on Bob, and we soon left behind us
Destruction Flat with its horrors, and were on
our way to the Carson.

CHAPTER Vni

AT THE CABSOH' EIVEB

About every mile we stopped and rested our-
selves by lying flat on the sand, and the next
momiag, just as old Sol was "firing the tops
of the eastern pines," we reached the river, —
nearly forty-eight hours after we had eaten our
last gruel.

We here found the little hamlet or burg of
Ragtown, — so named no doubt by reason of the
fact that it was built entirely of abandoned
tents and wagon covers. There were traders
here who sold supplies, or exchanged them for
jewelry or worn-out stock that could go no
farther, — stealing quite as much as they re-
ceived in exchange. Supplies were charged for
at the rate of one dollar a pound, and the trad-
ers allowed about one-fourth of the value on
any jewelry taken in exchange.

We had an understanding that any food pro-
cured by any member of our company should
be considered "joint stock," and that when we
reached the mines he should be reimbursed to
the extent of the value of the property ex-
changed; but this compact was lost sight of,

72

At the Carson River 73

for upon reaching the mines each man went his
own way, not to meet again except upon the
other side of the Great Divide.

Our horse Bob was now about ready to
"throw up the sponge," so we traded him for
sixteen pounds of chipped beef and sea biscuits,
and we then all sat down to the most enjoyable
feast in all the tides of time, for we were as.
lank as greyhounds, as hungry as wolves, and,
in addition, possessed the dilating powers of an
anaconda.

There was not a spear of grass here, for the
narrow strip of fertile land along the river had
been tramped like a corral, so we moved on up
the river about six miles, where we found an
abundance of feed for our three remaining
horses. Other members of our company had
made some purchases, so we were now fairly
well off for a few days; but the doctor put
us on a regular ration, saying we must eat
lightly or we would get sick, and we coidd not
afford to have a sick man on our hands. He
said that at the end of a week we would not
have to ration out our food because we would
not then have cmy.

Along the Carson River, and over the Sierra
Nevada Mountains to Hangtown (now Placer-
ville), there were relief stations, about every
twenty miles, which were financed by charitably
disposed business men in San Francisco and
Sacramento. Here were kept flour and com

74 A California Pioneer

meal only ; and to a man who was entirely desti-
tute would be given a pint of flour and a pint
of corn meal, which, it was calculated, would be
sufficient to enable him to reach the next sta-
tion.

Upon approaching one of these stations it
was proposed that all the horses and jewelry in
our party should be turned over to Alvin in fee
simple. This would reduce the remaining mem-
bers of our party to the "destitute condition"
that was a necessary prerequisite to our each
getting a pint of flour and meal. Most of the
men said that they were hungry enough to
steal, but not hungry enough to beg. Then
Phillips said to his partner :

' ' John, you can have my half of our horse. ' '

And to my brother I said :

"Al, old Pomp is yours."

These "property" transfers reduced Phillips
and me to a destitute condition, and as we were
now opposite one of the relief stations on the
bank of the river, Phillips and I started for it,
Phillips insisting that I should do all the talk-
ing.

Entering the tent, we noticed a pile of sacked
flour and meal at the far end, and next to it was
a box about three feet square which served as
a counter. I inquired of the man in charge if
this was a station where they gave flour and
meal to those who were entirely destitute. He
replied in a rough manner:

At the Carson River 75

"Yes, it is, but have you no money, jewelry,
or interest in the teams to barter?"

"No," I replied. "Our teams died on the
desert, and our sole possessions consist of what
we have on our backs and a pair of blankets
each. ' '

He reached for the empty flour sack I carried
and put into it two pint cups of flour and the
same quantity of meal. This I took, with
thanks, and turned to leave.

"Hold on a minute," said he; and from a
shelf in his box-counter he took out a book,
ink, and pen, adding : "Your name and former
place of residence, please. ' '

It immediately occurred to me that his ob-
ject in getting the names of those who had been
assisted on this last lap of the journey was in
order that they might be published in the east-
ern papers. Not desiring this kind of publicity,
I determined to prevaricate, and replied:

"My name is John Simmons, of De Kalb
County, Pennsylvania."

Turning to Phillips, the agent asked:

"Your name, sir?"

Seeing that I had wandered from the truth,
Phillips concluded to do likewise, and replied:

' ' My name is Peter Lewis, of the same place. ' '

But he drawled this out so long and so
solemnly that I could not restrain a hearty
laugh ; whereupon the man threw down his pen
and shouted:

76 A Calif ornia Pioneer

"You fellows are liars!"

"Yes," I admitted; "we lied like pickpockets
about our names, but about nothing else; and
as we bave tbe flour and meal, good-by."

And with this parting shot we retreated. A
few mUes farther on we camped, and here had
another banquet.

On the following day Phillips's partner
traded his horse for a supply of grub, and that
night we reached what was called Mormon Sta-
tion (now Carson City) , at the east foot of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here we stopped
for two days in order to give our last two horses
a good rest before starting over the mountains.

Mormon Station was a village of tents, and
there were five or six traders here ready to ex-
change grub for jewelry or other property. Be-
fore leaving Beloit, Alvin had purchased a
watch, for which he paid twenty dollars, and he
had kept this in reserve, to dispose of when our
company got down to "bed-rock" food condi-
tions. He was now dickering with one of the
traders, who finally gave him four pounds of
hard-tack and two pounds of chipped beef in ex-
change for the timepiece. This hard-driven
bargain, aside from the fact that no weapons
were displayed, very much resembled plain,
common, everyday robbery, and, as I thought,
merited retaliation.

This trader's tent was about twenty feet long
and ten feet wide, and all along the ridgepole

At the Carson River 77

relishing sides of bacon were suspended. The
bed of a wagon, lying upon its side with the
open or top toward the front of the tent, served
as a oonnter, and evidently at the same time as
a place for the storage of provisions ; for it was
filled with cans of soda crackers, chipped beef,
and other supplies.

Alvin and I stood together in front of this
counter while the dickering was going on, and
I noticed that the centerboard extending the
length of this wagon bed had broken loose from
its fastenings, and one end had dropped down,
leaving a crack about six inches wide at that
end, and tapering to a point at the other. I
gave Al a nudge and pointed at this crack, and,
in order to get the trader's attention away from
that particular crack, I entered the tent and
told him that my partners had watches and
jewelry they would have to exchange before we
started over the mountain, but that I first
wanted to see what he had in the way of goods,
so I could report to my partners and have them
come up for a trade.

While in the tent I did not faU to observe
that, at the far end, a side of bacon had dropped
from the ridgepole and lay upon the ground.

Meantime Al had reached through this crack
in the wagon bed and had appropriated as much
hard-tack and chipped beef as he had received in
exchange for his watch. Upon coming out of
the tent, I contrived to get near Al again, and

78 A California Pioneer

giving him another nudge, told him I was going
to our camp to get the Baker boys to come and
buy something. Then I started off. Al quickly
surmised that I was up to some deviltry, and
while he entertained the trader I passed around
the tent, reached under, and appropriated the
side of bacon. During my long life this is the
only theft in which I ever engaged, and while
the act was doubtless legally wrong, I felt at
the time that it was morally justified; nor have
I repented it up to this time, for if aU the grub
that we purchased from him and that we stole
from him was worth a dollar a pound, he did
not pay too much for the watch.

Instead of following the wagon road south
for several miles, and then through a long
canyon up the Carson River to Hangtown, we
took a bridle trail across the mountains to
Georgetown, said to be fifty miles shorter. "We
had been informed that pack trains had made
this trip in five days, but we soon learned that
"racks of bones" like our horses, could not
make the trip in double the time a fat Cali-
fornia horse could.

After making a few trades with the Mormon
traders at this place we had a larder that al-
lowed one ounce of dried beef, one heaping
tablespoonful of flour, and one of meal, for each
member of our company three times a day for
five days, calculating that we could make the
journey in six or seven days at the outside ; and.

At the Carson River 79

too, it was possible that we might kill a deer,
as Bemis had retained his rifle, — the only fire-
arm we now had.

On the night of the fifth day we divided our
rations so as to have half a ration on the sixth
morning from Carson, and of course on that
morning the last of our grub vanished.

On this day we met two packers, with a train
of ten mules loaded with food of all kinds.
They said they had sufiicient food to take eighty
men into the mines from Carson, whither they
were bound, and each of these men was expected
to work twenty days in the mines to pay for
this assistance. They said they did not care
to bother with us, as there were not enough of
us; besides, we were so near through that it
would not pay them to deal with us. Inci-
dentally, they lied about the distance to the
nearest trading post at the mines, saying that it
was only ten miles, while it must have been
twenty-five.

The doctor then suggested to them that if we
were that near the mines, and they would let us
have half a pound of soda crackers each, we
could "make it," and the first time they met
any member of our company he would pay them
two dollars a pound for it all. They seemed to
hesitate, whereupon Job Strange stopped the
mules, and Bemis, — who had not shaved since
he left Wisconsin, whose beard now stood out
nearly straight from his face, whose hair hung

80 A California Pioneer

down to where Ms coat collar should have been,
and whose head as a consequence appeared to be
as large as a three-gallon bucket, — stood lean-
ing against a pine tree close to the trail, his
eyes ablaze with wrath and hunger, and with
"Old Betsy," as he fondly called his rifle, rest-
ing across the hollow of his left arm, the breech
in his right hand, finger on the trigger, said in
a very slow and solemn voice :

"Gentlemen, you had better take the doctor's
proposition and weigh out half a pound to each
of us."

"While he made no direct threat, his look and
tone spoke volumes, and the crackers were
speedily weighed out, whereupon each man
stowed his half pound away in his pockets. Ben
Baker now confessed that before reaching the
desert he had stolen a little tea from the outfit
for use in case of sickness, and he now proposed
that we go on to the next water, which these
drivers had told us about, and have tea and
crackers for lunch. We did have tea for lunch,
but there was not in the whole crowd a piece of
cracker as large as my thumb nail, for with the
aid of a little warm water from our canteens
all of the crackers had been eaten as we trudged
along.

After "tea," with a cane in each hand, we
plodded along far enough to know that the pack-
ers had lied about the distance to the mines. As
a matter of fact, we had taken a wrong trail

At the Carson River 81

at the fork, and finally came out on the middle
fork of the American River, at a point about
twenty-five miles north of Georgetown.

The day following our feast of crackers we
came upon a clump of low chokecherry bushes,
fairly well loaded with fruit. These cherries
held a large stone which was surrounded by
a thin, bitter pulp. The doctor warned us not
to eat them, but said we might crack the stones,
which contained a little nutriment. However,
I did not stop at this suggestion, and it is now
quite clear to me that I ate too many cherries.
The trail here followed along the north side of
a very steep mountain, and I began to get dizzy.
I had started out in the lead, but one after the
other of our company passed me, until I finally
brought up in the rear, when, in stepping over a
pine tree that had fallen across the trail, I
stumbled and fell in the red dust ; and I firmly
believe that I was asleep before my head
touched the ground.

I have observed that whatever absorbs one's
attention in his waking hours is very apt to be
present in his dreams, and as our whole com-
pany had simply talked "eat" for several
weeks, it was quite natural that, as I lay here
dreaming, the subject of eating should not be
far away.

I was sitting down to the finest banquet ever
placed before a hungry man. The tables of
the rich, set with beautiful silver and sweet-
scented flowers, might be more attractive to

82 A California Pioneer

the fastidious, but as a display of the sub-
stantials, — for "larruping good truck" in abun-
dance, — this spread beat them all. Here were
big tin pans filled with roasted chickens, a roast
goose almost floating around in his rich gravy,
a roast pig with an apple in his mouth, and a
pudding in his belly, apple pies and pumpkin
pies, and mince pies, and white cake, and yellow
cake, and jelly cake and cranberry sauce, and
doughnuts galore. But of this bountiful
spread, it was the last dish that attracted my
attention.

The table, which was about sixteen feet long
and four feet wide, was surrounded by gentle-
men who were all strangers to me. My place
was about a foot from one end of the table,
and there was a stack of these doughnuts in
front of me, each one of which reached clear
across the table. Each strand of these dough-
nuts was three inches in diameter, so that, when
doubled, the doughnut was six inches through
and four feet long. I broke off a great hunk
from one of these and was industriously boring
my way through and around it when there came
a tap on my ribs (now quite close to the sur-
face), and I woke up to behold Alvin, who in-
quired :

"What the are you lying here for?"

I told him of my banquet and that he should
not have disturbed me until I had finished that
doughnut.

At the Carson River 83

We soon overtook the other men, who had
waited for us; and a little farther on, it being
now sundown, we scraped together the leaves
under the spreading branches of a large oak
tree, and all laid down in a row for the night.

As there was now nothing to eat, and conse-
quently no necessity for devoting time to the
fool job of cooking or washing dishes, we could
put in our whole time romancing and telling
stories, in an endeavor to keep up our courage.

The doctor, who was generally of a very jolly
disposition, here had a heavy dose of the blues,
and predicted serious trouble if we did not soon
get relief from our present condition. To this
observation Bemis replied:

"Nothing of the kind. Doc. We have got
along fine so far, and in two days we will be in
the mines, and there have a banquet which wUl
beat Carr Abbott's all holler." Continuing, he
said to me: "Carr, I will draw straws with
you to determine whose horse shall be killed for
food when we reach water. ' '

I agreed to this, with the proviso that if my
horse must be slaughtered, Alvin, who was not
yet able to travel on foot, should be permitted
to ride Bemis' horse. The doctor prepared
the straws and I drew the short one. Old
Pomp must die. Poor old Pomp, who had
swum every stream that had to be swum since
we left Wisconsin, with me on his back or hang-
ing on his tail ; who had hauled my sick brother

84 A California Pioneer

in a cart on alternate days down the Humboldt
Eiver and to Destruction Flat, and had car-
ried him on his back since we first reached the
Carson, must now die, that we might suck the
marrow from his fleshless bones, and boil for
food the hide that covered them ! This gave me
the blues, and that night I could not sleep.

Pomp and the other horse were staked out
together, munching the twigs of a clump of
lilac bushes not far from where I lay; and as
the other nine men were fast asleep I deter-
mined to go out and see old Pomp and "talk"
to him. But when I was within ten or fifteen
yards of where he stood, he turned his head in
my direction and whinnied. I could go no far-
ther, but returned to my bed of leaves and lay
down. And, although I was then twenty-two
years of age, I am not ashamed to say that I
wept myself to sleep.

Not having to eat, cook, or W9,sh dishes, we
were on our way the next morning as soon as
it was fairly light. Our trail was now nearing
the bottom of the canyon, and here Job Strange,
who was in the lead, caught sight of a deer
across the canyon, gazing at us apparently in
great astonishment. Strange stopped and
pointed in the direction of the deer, still not say-
ing a word, while Bemis got in range of a big
pine tree and, amid the breathless excitement
of all, worked his way quietly down to it, quickly
stepped to one side, and fired. The deer

At the Carson Biver 85

dropped to his knees, then sprang to his feet
and bounded up the steep mountain side three
or four times, while the whole crowd yelled to
Bemis :

"We'll kill your horse instead of Abbott's, if
you do not get that deer!"

The wound was fatal, for the deer now turned
a complete somersault and rolled down to the
bottom of the canyon. And we were all so
weak that it took our combined strength to get
it up to the trail. We tied the deer on Berois '
horse and at about eleven o'clock in the day,
at the junction of this canyon with afiother one,
we came upon a small stream. Here we camped
until noon ; and by the next day, it is needless
perhaps to say, there was nothing left of that
deer but the horns, the hide, and the bones.
By sundown we reached a broad trail used by
the packers in carrying supplies to the middle
fork of the American Eiver, from which a
branch trail led down to Volcano Bar, on the
river, while another branch led to Missouri
Canyon, a mile and a half to the south.

CHAPTER IX

AT THE MINES

At tlie junction of these trails there was
a trading post conducted by a man called
"Longy," and familiarly referred to as "old
Longy." As he was very tall, the name
"Longy" was appropriate enough; but not so
the word "old," for he was not an old man; in
fact, there was not then a gray hair in that
country, as no one but the young and strong
went to California in those days.

We were now at the mines and must part with
Old Pomp, and Alvin and I had quite a discus-
sion as to what disposition should be made of
the faithful old brute. Alvin proposed to turn
him out and let him pick for himself and thus
spend his remaining years in ease ; but I knew
that some packer would take him up and put
him at hard work, and I therefore advised shoot-
ing him and thereby saving him from further
toil ; for the idea of having him used for pack-
ing into the mines, under the lash, was quite
out of the question with both of us. Al ve-
hemently declared that he would not be a party
to the murder of Old Pomp, and I declared that

86

At the Mines 87

I would under no circumstances pull the trig-
ger. We, however, found a man who promised
to take good care of our old companion, for
whom he paid us twenty-five dollars ; and with
this sum we immediately purchased a pick, a
shovel, and a pan.

Eight of our company started for Volcano
Bar and the river, while Al and I determined
to try our luck, on our own account, in Missouri
Canyon. I likewise determined that by some
means I was going to get something to eat, so
we went to see Old Longy, only a few yards
away.

His was a typical California building of the
time, and consisted of pine poles set in the
ground, with canvas sides and top. I told him
we were going to Missouri Canyon to try our
luck, and asked him if he would trust us for a
few days' grub.

' ' Trust you ? " he repeated. " Yes ; of course
I will trust you. One condition only will I im-
pose, — that you work; for I know that if you
work you will get the dust, and even if you
should not strike it in six months, if you work,
you can eat; but if you don't work you can
starve."

He thereupon weighed out a good and sub-
stantial ration for a week, then gave us mining
tools, together with tools with which to make a
rocker, and a piece of perforated iron to use

88 A Calif orma Pioneer

in making the rocker. Then, after looking us
over, he continued:

"Look here, young fellows ; you are dirty and
ragged ; toes sticking out of your boots [we had
had no change of clothes since leaving Destruc-
tion Flat] ; go in there" — pointing to a pile of
clothing — "and pick out a suit of miner's
clothes, two suits of underclothes, and two pairs
of blankets each. Then take the trail to the
left of the house, and in about a hundred yards
you will find a spring, and just below that a
big hole for bathing. Then bum those rags."

We thought the man must be crazy, but never-
theless did as he directed, — and found we had
run up a bill amounting to two hundred and
twenty-five dollars.

"Old Longy" was long since gathered to his
fathers, and I doubt not that in the making up
of his account the Recording Angel gave him
a full meed of credit for the generous assistance
he then rendered to two needy boys, — assist-
ance that, in our destitute condition, fell upon
us like a benediction.

The next morning our outfit was loaded on a
mule, and we followed to Missouri Canyon and
stopped at the upper end of where the ground
had been worked. Here, with pine boughs we
built a cabin about eight feet wide and ten feet
long, in which we made a floor of pine needles.
After our first meal here we went downstream
to observe the methods of the miners, — ^how

At the Mmes 89

they found gold, how they saved it, and how
deep it was to bedrock, — and also to learn how
much ground we had a right to claim; after
which we returned and measured off a hundred-
foot claim ajid posted notices at each end, which
constituted as good a title as a United States
Patent, so long as the claim was worked. Al-
vin found a hollow tree, and, with a part of this,
put in the rest of the week making an old-fash-
ioned rocker, this being of course before sluice
boxes came into use. Meantime I had dug a
ditch the entire length of our claim and had
turned the stream into it.

It was about four feet to bedrock but not a
"color" of gold showed up, and I was both dis-
appointed and discouraged, because the miners
below us were finding gold on the bedrock and
in the gravel next to it. I worked until Satur-
day afternoon, making an excavation about five
feet wide and twenty feet long, and was still at
work when a miner from downstream came
along. He complimented me on the amount of
ground I had removed during the week, but
when I told him I had not found a speck of gold
he examined my work more closely and then
said:

"Don't you see the bedrock pitches upstream?
and where the bedrock pitches upstream, or is
level, there is no gold, because the sand hardens
and makes a smooth surface and the gold passes
over it. But it stops and settles in the gravel

90 A Calif omia Pioneer

where it is rougli. Go upstream ten or fifteen
feet and dig a shaft, and if yon find the same
conditions as you have here, go up a little far-
ther; and when the bedrock raises you will find

gold." ^,,

I thanked him and he passed on to Old

Longy's.

I now made a narrow out in the center of my
pit,_just wide enough to work in,— and just at
sundown came to a raise in the bedrock, where I
picked up a sliver of gold worth about twenty-
five cents. This ended our first week in the

mines. .

Our luck had been so poor that we were afraid
Longy would go back on his agreement to fur-
nish supplies, but there was nothing to do but
to go and find out. So on Sunday we went to
the trading post, and I showed Longy the re-
sult of our week's work. He laughed and said :

"The agreement is good, for my packer says
you have worked like a dog digging out a wood-
chuck." And he immediately weighed out an-
other week's supplies.

During the following week Alvin ran the
rocker and I did the digging. We were now
"old miners" and were taking out the dust;
and on the following Sunday we paid our en-
tire debt to Longy, paid for two weeks' more
supplies, were well supplied with clothes, blank-
ets, and mining tools and had ten ounces of
dust,— worth $160.00,— left.

At the Mmes 91

At tlie end of three more weeks our claim was
worked out and the canyon above had all been
taken up by what we called "tenderfeet," who
came to us " old miners ' ' for information. Our
rocker was now rough and full of cracks, into
which fine gold had worked; so we burned it,
and from the ashes reclaimed three quarters
of an ounce of dust.

From here we went to Volcano Bar, where we
found four of our old partners of the plains, —
Bennett, Casey, Baker and Bemis, — ^who were
now in a company with a Dr. Taylor. The
scurvy, which was so prevalent in all the min-
ing country, had not attacked any man of this
company, because Dr. Taylor had kept them all
liberally doped with a concoction made of vine-
gar and sliced raw potatoes and raw onions.
They desired to have Alvin and myself join
their company, as they had heard glowing ac-
counts of gold discoveries in the Mud Springs
Country, about six miles from Hangtown, and
they wanted some one to go there in behalf of
the company and investigate the situation.

We joined them, and two days later I started
on this trip of sixty miles over a rough coun-
try. I stopped at the different mines on the
way and studied the earth formations and the
manner of working, reaching my destination at
the end of three days.

Mud Spring at that time had a population of

92 A California Pioneer

about two hundred, and boasted one hotel, three
stores and the usual number of saloons.

The next day I started out to locate a camping
place, and at length selected one at a point
about a mile west of the town, near a sprmg
of water. There was a roadside "Dive" here,
at which the proprietor peddled squirrel
whiskey, and at the same time stole gold dust
by means of false weights; but he did not re-
main long, for there was a well-defined rumor
that he was to be "lynched," and he quickly
left the country.

I made a brush tent, bought some supphes
and tools, and began prospecting the gulches m
the vicinity, in many instances carrying the
dirt and gravel two miles to the spring to wash
and test it. At the end of about ten days I lo-
cated a claim that promised to pay ten or twelve
dollars a day, providing there was sufficient
rainfall to run a rocker.

There was, of course, no United States Mail
Service into the mines, though there were pri-
vate mail routes, upon which a charge of five
dollars was made for carrying a letter to Sacra-
mento, and the same charge for bringing one
back. This was a monthly service, and was
carried on by means of mules. One man would
select for the field of his operations a section
of the mining country embracing a number of
mines, and he would go to these various mines
and take up the mail for Sacramento, distribut-

At the Mmes 93

ing the returning mail in the same manner.
The service was not altogether satisfactory, but
was far better than none at all.

The main item that entered into the cost of
supplies in the mines was that of freight, and,
as a result, potatoes, tea, crackers, bacon, beans,
flour, meal, soap, salt, sugar, and all kinds of
provisions sold at exactly the same price, — one
dollar a pound. Indeed, the dollar was the unit
of value in everything except the purchase of
drinks at the bar, which were quoted at fifty
cents each.

Four dollars a day was the estimated cost
of a man's keep, which was not a high estimate,
when the amount of grub the ordinary miner
disposes of in twenty-four hours is considered.

There was, of course, no coin whatever in
the mines at that time, gold dust being the sole
medium of exchange and payment. Every
trading post, saloon, or other place of business
had scales upon the counter into which the pur-
chaser's dust was placed, and there was a wide
difference in the values of the dust from the
various diggings, — such value varying from
eight to sixteen dollars an ounce. These trad-
ers became so familiar with the various quali-
ties of dust that, upon weighing it out, they
could tell with unerring accuracy whether it
came from Lousy Bar, Yankee Slide, Volcano
Bar, or Jackass Gulch.

It was now about time for our company to ar-

94 A California Pioneer

rive, so I set about building a bouse fourteen
feet wide and sixteen feet long. From a pine
tbicket nearby I cut tbe logs, wbich were from
twelve to fifteen incbes in diameter, rolled tbem
to tbe place wbere tbe bouse was to be built, and
by means of skids got tbem set up. I tben
moved my bed into one corner and began to fill
up tbe cracks. A scorcbing fever bere seized
me and abruptly stopped my work. I managed
to reacb tbe trail leading from Mud Springs to
Hangtown, and tbere lay down until a mule
train came by beaded for Hangtown. By tbis
means I sent word to Mud Springs for a doc-
tor, wbo came in about an bour. He was a
young man, and after looking at tbe cracks be-
tween tbe logs and examining tbe open spaces
cut out for tbe door and windows, be looked at
tbe blue sky overbead and remarked:

"Well, young man, if tbere is anything in
the fresb air treatment, you ougbt to get along
without a doctor. ' '

He then asked what was tbe matter with me,
and I told him that I didn't know, and that was
why I had sent for him. He then examined me
and pronounced it a case of mountain fever,
gave me some medicine, and then brought some
cold water from the spring. He told me I
should be in town, but there was no spare room,
and a tent would be too hot in the daytime and
too cold at night. Finally he pulled off his
coat, vest, and necktie, took the ax, and went

At the Mines 95

out; and presently I heard him chopping.
After a while he returned, bringing in. pine
twigs, with which he filled all the cracks about
the comer where I lay ; then he cut a number of
long poles and made a lean-to over my bed, cov-
ering this shelter with pine brush, the long
leaves of which he pointed downward, in order
to shed any rain that might fall. After making
me some corn-meal gruel and placing some
water and medicine within reach, he left, say-
ing he would return about nine o 'clock the next
morning.

This doctor made eleven trips in all, charging
half an ounce of dust for each trip, — which was
cheap enough; for he either cooked something
or brought something for me from town each
time he came. On the fourth day after his last
visit, while I was sitting out in the sunshine,
my brother Alvin came. He reported that the
company had struck good diggings in a canyon
near Volcano Bar, which would last until we
could get back to the river bars; but after I
had shown him fifteen little packages of dust
that I had obtained from the same number of
pans of dirt, he advocated our leaving the com-
pany and spending the winter here. However,
as we would lose our river claims if we did this,
we concluded to return. All of my work on
this house was wasted, for none of our com-
pany ever went back to the Mud Springs coun-
try.

96 A California Pioneer

Alvin and I were four days making the trip,
and, in my enfeebled condition, it was a tough
journey. We found the members of our com-
pany all busy making a ditch to carry the water
past their claims. It was about six feet to bed-
rock, and there were from six to twelve inches
of pay gravel on the bottom, from which it was
necessary to remove a mass of bowlders from
six inches to two feet in diameter. There was
one rock, however, about ten feet in diameter,
which was resting upon about fifteen inches of
pay gravel, and Casey declared he was going
to get that gravel.

As we had neither powder nor drills, we
worked under the lower side of this big bowlder,
and Casey finally had to lie on his side in about
an inch of water in order to work under it,
while we shored it up so as to keep it from set-
tling. Casey worked with a light pick, and,^ as
he loosened the gravel, he would poke it behind
him with a short-handled shovel, while Baker
raked it out with a hoe.

Very soon Casey began to use some language
that was as strong as it was copious, and, upon
being asked what was the matter, said that some

thing was on the point of his pick, and

in the position he lay he could not get it off,
so he threw the pick out to the others, — and the
point of it was found embedded in a chunk of
gold worth nearly three hundred and fifty dol-
lars.

At the Mines 97

In the spring of 1851, when the river had
fallen so that we could work there, — ^while work
could not be carried on in the canyons, because
of the lack of water, — we moved to a low bar be-
low Volcano. There were about seventy-five
men working here, and one day one of the
miners, with his big hammer poised in air,
stopped and yelled:

"Look, look, for God's sake look!"

Every eye was instantly directed toward the
trail, and then some one yelled :

"Three cheers for the lady!"

At the call every hat went off and every man
yelled with all the lung power he possessed. A
lady and a gentleman were walking along the
trail. The sight of a woman in the mines at
this time was extraordinary. They stopped,
bowed to us, and went on their way.

CHAPTER X

JUDGE LYNCH AND YANKEE SLIDE

In the mountain sections of California in the
early days there were, of course, all kinds and
conditions of men. The great majority were
of good character, but there was also a liberal
sprinkling of bad and desperate men; and as
there were no courts accessible, the miners made
and executed their own decrees, there seeming
to be a general agreement that, in order to keep
in restraint those who were evilly disposed, it
was absolutely essential that there should be an
occasional object lesson, and as there were no
jails, this always took the form of hanging.

Even though the proof might not be alto-
gether satisfactory, the example remained, and
the lesson taught would be valuable to others.
I have heard it said that it was not an unusual
thing in those days for a miner to leave his gold
dust in an exposed condition in his cabin dur-
ing his absence, feeling sure that it would not be
molested. I do not know, yet I am inclined
to think there is more or less romance in this
statement. Nevertheless, it is true that swift
and certain death was the portion of one caught

98

Judge Lynch a/nd TcmJcee Slide 99

stealing, and this fate befell some who were
merely suspected of it.

I here digress to mention a story I once heard
of some miners having lynched a man supposed
to have been guilty of stealing a horse. After
the "ceremonies" were over, and John was
thoroughly "lynched" it was discovered that a
mistake had been made and that the wrong man
had been put to death. John, it seems, had left
a widow, and one of the "lynching party" was
sent to the widow to explain the mistake and to
make such apologies as the situation permitted.
He tapped gently at the open door, and, upon
the widow's appearing, our apologist said:

' ' Mrs. , we took John out about an hour

ago and hung him for stealing a horse, and we
have just found out that we got the wrong
man; so the joke is on us."

I do not vouch for the truth of this story, but
I think it does give a fair illustration of the
value that the early California pioneers put
upon the life of a man even suspected of theft.

Yankee Slide was situated on the east side of
the middle fork of the American Eiver about
three miles above Volcano Bar. At some re-
mote period this slide had come down from the
mountain and filled the old river channel to a
depth of three hundred feet and for a distance
of a mile, making thereby a lake three hundred
feet deep, the river forming a new channel on
the west.

100 A California Pioneer

In the lapse of the centuries the river had
worn its way back to within about sixty feet of
the old channel and to a depth of twenty feet
below it.

The discovery here was made by five New
Englanders, hence the name Yankee Slide. I
happened along at the time of the discovery,
carrying a hundred-pound sack of chili flour on
my back (for which, by the way, I had just paid
one hundred dollars), and found great excite-
ment, — ^miners coming from all directions and
staking off claims.

It was the privilege of the discoverers of a
new mining ground to fix the size of locations,
which varied with the extent of the diggings and
the number of applicants. At Yankee Slide it
was determined that each man's claim should
be limited to fifteen feet frontage on the river,—
the location of course extending away from the
river indefinitely. >

I dropped my sack of flour and immediately
stuck up notices claiming fifteen feet for each
man of our company, but the discoverers cut
me down to sixty feet in all. In connection with
the posting of notices, it was necessary that
actual work be done in order to perfect title to
a claim. So I borrowed a pick and shovel and
went to work, and when night came I placed my
sack of flour in the hole I had dug and sat down
on it. I had no supper; but why should I eat

Judge Lynch and Tcmkee Slide 101

when I had the world by the tail and a down-
hill puU?

I sent word to our company to be at Yankee
Slide before sunrise the next morning, and they
were all promptly on hand.

At the end of two days the excitement was
over, and everybody was busy starting tunnels,
pitching tents, or building log huts. At a depth
of three feet the gravel was yielding five dol-
lars to the bucketful.

Sandy Bar adjoined Yankee Slide, on the
river just above. This bar was about sixty
yards wide and about four hundred yards long,
and as there was fair mining on it, a small town
sprung up as if by magic, and there were stores,
gambling houses, and of course saloons, which
are always present where gold is plentiful.

At the end of the second week we were all
running our main tunnels back across to the
old channel, which proved to be about seventy
feet wide, meantime throwing our loose rocks
into the river, while, with our rockers at the
edge, the tailings were being run into the
stream.

There was one company owning the river bed,
which they intended to work as soon as the
river got low enough to be turned into a flume,
which this company then had in course of con-
struction, and they would of course, in order
to work their claim, be compelled to remove all

102 A California Pioneer

of the tailings and rubbish that we were put-
ting in.

A Doctor Woodward, rather an arbitrary-
man when in liquor, was the captain, or presi-
dent, of this company.

In our company there were two brothers
named Balch, — Arad and Confucius, the latter
of whom we called "Fuche," for short. He
weighed about two hundred pounds, and when
not imposed upon was as good-natured as he
was big and strong. He was, however, very
deaf, and, as will be seen, this drawback almost
got him into trouble.

One day Dr. Woodward, evidently in liquor,
was going up and down the river, calling the
attention of the miners to the running of their
rubbish into the river and asking them to de-
sist. When he reached our claim, Fuche was
running the rocker, the tailings from which
were going into the stream, and I was handling
the wheelbarrow, wheeling out material from
our tunnel.

Dr. Woodward ordered Fuche to stop run-
ning the tailings into the river, but the latter,
unable to hear what the doctor had said, stepped
up close to him and asked :

"What did you say?"

At this the doctor shook his fist in Fuche 's
face, shouting:

"Stop running the tailings into the river."

Fuche, apparently yet unable to hear what

Judge Lynch and Ya/nkee Slide 103

had been said, taking the shaking of the doctor's
fist to be a threatening demonstration, im-
mediately swung a short-handled shovel and
struck Dr. Woodward on the side of the head,
the blow knocking him unconscious into the
river.

I reached the mouth of our tunnel in time to
see the blow, and immediately dropped my
wheelbarrow, and, rushing to Fuche, said :

"Pull that man out of the river, or you will
be hanged within two hours. ' '

Fuche did not hesitate, but plunged into the
river. The water was about three feet deep and
was moving swiftly, and Dr. "Woodward was
merrily sailing along on the bottom. Fuche
soon reached the unconscious man and drew him
out at a point where there was a rock about
three feet high (evidently placed there for the
occasion), upon which Fuche placed the doctor.
The top of this rock had its low side toward the
river, and the doctor was placed upon it so that
his head was down, while his feet and legs were
hooked over the upper edge to hold him in posi-
tion. Fuche put his knees upon the doctor's
breast and then, by alternately pressing and
letting go, finally got the water all pumped out
of the doctor's lungs, and likewise the whiskey
out of his stomach. The doctor came around
all right.

Two hours later there were about three hun-
dred men assembled on Sandy Bar, and they

104 A California Pioneer

accused Fuclie of attempting to drown Dr.
Woodward. The usual way of trying an ac-
cused was to appoint a judge and twelve jurors,
and this was now proposed. But some of the
crowd said it would take too long, for, in addi-
tion to disposing of this case, it was necessary
for the meeting to take up for discussion the
question of dumping rubbish in the river. The
spokesman of the crowd proposed to draw a
small log across the bar, making a mark, and
those in favor of hanging Fuche were to stand
on the west side, and those opposed to his hang-
ing were to stand on the east side.

The mark was drawn and witnesses were
called. I testified that I saw Dr. Woodward
shake his fist in Fuche 's face and that Fuche
had knocked him into the river, and had then
pulled him out, placed him upon a rock head
down, and had pumped the water and whiskey
out of him.

Another witness testified to the same facts
and the case appeared clear enough; but this
crowd, some of them half drunk, did not want
to leave their work to attend this meeting with-
out hanging some one. We now "cast our bal-
lots" by taking our places on the respective
sides of the mark, and we saved Fuche by eight
votes, I, of course, favoring his acquittal.

This matter disposed of, we then took up the
question of depositing rubbish in the river, and
the meeting determined that the rockers could

Judge Lynch amd Ycmkee Slide 105

be run on the river and the tailings run into
the stream; but the rocks must be disposed of
in some other way. The decision was hard on
both sides, yet its justice was recognized by all,
for it was the only solution of the question that
would permit work by all. If all the rubbish
were dumped in, the river bottom would not be
worth working, and if we on the Slide could not
wash our gold out at the river, we would have
to abandon our work until the river bottom was
worked out, — which would probably take six
months.

After three weeks' operations under the new
method, there was a bench of rocks between the
tunnels, — a mass from four feet to six feet high,
and extending the whole length of the Slide,
Our main tunnels were now completed and we
were stoping out the gravel on each side and
piling the rocks behind us.

Alvin and I leveled off the rocks between the
tunnel and that of our next neighbor, covered
them with pine twigs, pitched our tent, and ar-
ranged our beds. The open end of the tent was
toward the bank, and lying upon my bunk, I
could see into the mouth of our own tunnel as
well as into that of our neighbor. There was
a large oak tree between our claims, some of
the branches of which spread out over our tent.
The mountain side above the tunnels was very
steep, and we had cut into this and leveled off
a space about ten feet wide and thirty feet long,

106 A California Pioneer

upon wMch we had placed our provision tent
and cooking outfit.

It was my custom after lunch to go to our
tent and lie upon my bunk reading until it was
time to again go to work. The tunnel of our
neighbor originally belonged to three me;n, but
they had recently sold a quarter interest to a
stranger who lived at the hotel at Sandy Bar,
and whom I will call John Schang (which was
not his name).

It was the custom of most of the miners to
bury their gold dust, while others kept it in a
belt around them when not at work, and while
working they would leave it upon some over-
head timber in the mine.

One of these partners had a belt that held
about three thousand dollars' worth of dust, and
upon one occasion when going to work he placed
this belt on the first bent of timbers at the mouth
of the tunnel, forgot to take it with him when
he went to lunch, and when he returned from
lunch his belt of dust had disappeared.

On this very day during the noon hour as I
lay on my bunk, I had casually turned my eyes
from my reading in the direction of this tunnel,
when I saw Schang entering it. From where I
lay it was not more than thirty feet to the mouth
of the tunnel where the dust had been left, and
had I known where it was, and had I been of a
disposition to take it, I could have easily done

Judge Lynch mid Ycmkee Slide 107

so and hid it away among the rocks and recov-
ered it weeks or months later.

About three o 'clock in the afternoon, while I
was at work in one of the stopes, I was sent
for, and came out to find a mob of about two
hundred miners, by whom I was immediately
accused of stealing the belt of dust. Of course
I denied having any knowledge of the affair, but
I did remember having seen Schang go into the
mine about five minutes ahead of his partners,
and I felt satisfied that, if the gold had been
stolen, Schang was the guilty party. I there-
fore accused him of it; but my accusation was
laughed at.

Preparations for my hanging now went for-
ward rapidly. Our tent was quickly torn down,
a rope was thrown over a limb of the oak tree,
and the noose was being prepared.

The Balches each had a rifle, and Casey, Ben-
nett, and my brother Alvin each had a six-
shooter; and while I was protesting my inno-
cence, Fuche determined to save my life at any
cost and at all hazards. The mountain side of
the level space occupied by our cooking outfit
had been cut down so that it presented a per-
pendicular wall about six feet high, and against
this wall my five partners stood, with their
weapons ready for action, and with their faces
toward the mob. Suddenly, above the tumult
of voices, Fuche shouted:

' ' Carr Abbott did not steal that gold, and the

108 A California Pioneer

man that puts a rope over Ms head I will drop
in Ms tracks."

I can understand the feelings of the sMp-
wrecked sailor as he first gets Ms hand upon a
life-saving plank; of the desert wanderer, fam-
ished with thirst, coming unexpectedly upon a
spring of sparkling water; of the man trapped
in the flames of a burning building, as he sets
Ms foot upon the ladder that will lead Mm to
the ground. All these situations are thriUing
enough, but, as I stood there in the shadow of
that oak-tree gallows, confronted by that mob
of stern-visaged miners who had already con-
victed me without a trial, and who had even
laughed at my defense,— as I stood there com-
pletely dazed, with my last hope ebbing away,
tMs clear, ringing defiance from dear old Fuche
was the sweetest sound which ever touched my
ear.

Yet this threat, which everybody knew would
be carried into execution, if necessary to save
my life, did not end matters, nor did it even dis-
concert the men to whom it was addressed. Im-
mediately came the challenge :

"Oh, you will, will you? Well, if we must
hang the whole bunch of you in order to get Mm,
we wiU hang all of you."

" All right," said Fuche. "But we can kiU
five or six before you reach us, and we are go-
ing to die, or save that innocent man."

The mob could not approach my brave com-

Judge Lynch and Ycmkee Slide 109

panions but from one side, and dared not make
the attempt. It was not yet sundown, and yet,
as though ashamed of the scene, Old Sol had
hid his face behind a lofty peak. Finally, after
much wrangling, Fuche proposed that they send
me and Schang into the mine with candles, and
that we be kept there until one or the other
produced the gold. This was finally agreed to,
after much grumbling, whereupon Fuche and
several others rushed up to where I was and
spoke to me encouragingly, patted me on the
back, and told me to keep a stiff upper lip.
And while this was going on Fuche, whose life
I had helped to save at Sandy Bar, slipped a
six-shooter under my blue jumper. Schang 's
candle and mine were lighted, and we were now
ready to go into the tunnel.

Schang wanted me to go ahead, but I told him
that I was not familiar with the inside of the
mine, and as he was, he should lead. This was
at length agreed upon, and we started. I fol-
lowed him into the tunnel to a point nearly
across the old channel of the river and was
meantime revolving in my mind what could be
done to force Schang to a truthful disclosure;
for I was absolutely certain he was the thief.
Having determined upon a plan of action, I
now said to him:

"Hold on! We have gone far enough."
He stopped and turned around, facing me,
with his candle in his right hand, while I now

110 A California Pioneer

had mine in the left. This hronght our candles
within a foot of each other, but it also brought
my six-shooter within six inches of Schaug's
nose, and I said to him :

"You stole that gold and would see an inno-
cent man hanged for your crime. I am not
going to be hanged for stealing; and if I am
hanged at all it will be for blowing the top of
your head off, and if you do not dig that gold
up immediately and deliver it to your partners,
you will not get out of this hole alive."
He stammered and replied:
"I want to speak to my partners."
"Well," came the answer, "we are here.
What do you want to say?"

The partners, without the knowledge of
Schang or myself, had quietly slipped off their
shoes, and, without taking candles, had noise-
lessly followed us into the mine, in order to
overhear what passed between us. Having
heard what I had said to Schang, they later in
the day told me that they knew immediately
that Schang, and not I, had stolen the
gold.

"This young fellow will kill me sure if you
do not interfere. ' '

"Is that all you have to say?" said one of
the partners.

"Yes," answered Schang, "except that you
know I did not take the gold, and I will be killed
sure if you do not interfere."

Judge Lynch and Ycmkee Slide 111

"All right," said one of them; "but before
he kills you I would like to have you dig up
that gold." And with this they started back.

"Hold on," cried Schang, "I want to make
a proposal. If you will keep that crowd from
hanging me I will produce the gold. ' '

Until that moment my nerves had been per-
fectly steady, but with this statement my whole
being relaxed, and my frame shook and trem-
bled like a poplar leaf in the breeze. I now
lowered my pistol while Schang 's partners told
him that they would do the best they could, but
that they could not promise anything. ' ' Well, ' '
said Schang, "go back towards the front."

We went to a point about twenty-five or thirty
feet from the entrance, and here Schang went
into one of those low stopes about eight feet
from the main tunnel, got down on his knees,
rolled over a rock, and there lay the belt of
gold. He threw it out to his partners, and then
made a dive in among the loose rocks that had
been piled back as the miners worked forward,
and that, in some places, filled the space to the
overhead timbers, leaving ghastly holes.

When we came out of the tunnel, and the mob
was informed of what had taken place, they
were the maddest lot of men I ever saw, be-
cause we had not brought Schang out.

Immediately from a box of candles at the
mouth of the tunnel each man supplied himself,
and into the mine they all went in quest of

112 A California Pioneer

Sohang; but their search was in vain, for they
did not succeed in finding him. It was sur-
mised that he had stowed himself away in some
dark hole wheje he had remained until the
shadows of night made it possible for him to
escape unobserved. However this may be, he
was never found, and, so far as I know, was
never heard of afterward.

I went to our little flat for supper, but my
appetite was gone, and for weeks afterwards,
as I closed my eyes in sleep, I could see that ac-
cursed rope dangling above my head.

It is not diflScult to write of swimming the
ice-cold streams upon the plains leading a band
of horses ; nor of standing half a night upon a
rock, stamping my feet to keep from freezing
while menaced by a pack of hungry wolves
that were leaping to within two feet of the spot
upon which I stood ; nor of crossing the barren
sands of the desert, without food or water; nor
of hobbling along for six days, with a cane in
each hand and without a particle of food; nor
of lying for eleven days under a brush cover-
ing, consumed by a scorching fever, but tongue
cannot tell, nor pen write, nor brush paint the
horrors that passed through my mind during
the three hours of that ever-to-be-remembered
day when an unreasoning and bloodthirsty mob
of miners almost took my life by violence. And
I quite agree with the author of "The Cardi-
nal's Snuff-Box" in his statement that the only

Judge Lynch cmd Tanhee Slide 113

things that are worth writing are inexpressible
and cannot be written.

Late in the summer of 1851 the saying, "All
is quiet along Yankee Slide and Sandy Bar,"
became as common as "All quiet along the Po-
tomac" was in the days of the Great Eebel-
lion, or as " Villa is dead ' ' is common now. So,
except for the following incident, there is little
to record.

A short distance above Sandy Bar there was
a small bar upon which about fifty men were
mining, and they obtained their gold, at a depth
of from ten to twelve feet, by sinking pits five
feet wide and ten feet long. In one of these
pits two partners got into a quarrel, and one
was killed by the other; whereupon the miners
collected to investigate. The surviving partner
declared that he had been attacked, and that he
had fought only in self-defense and without any
intention to kill ; but, as it had been some time
since anybody had been hanged, the miners de-
tached the rope from the hoisting tub, adjusted
one end of it about the man's neck, and pushed
him off into the pit, then turned the windlass
until his feet were raised from the ground,.made
the rope fast, and went back to their work.
After supper both bodies were buried in a single
grave on the mountain side.

CHAPTER XI

DIVERSIONS AND AMUSEMENTS

Theeb were few of the miners who were re-
ligiously inclined, yet they nearly all rested on
the Sahbath, and the time was passed in wrest-
ling, jumping, pitching horseshoes, playing
cards, gambling, drinking whiskey, and so on.

One Simday a ventriloquist made his appear-
ance at Sandy Bar and secured the use of a
store, which had just been completed (pine poles
and canvas-covered top and sides), for an eve-
ning performance. The merchant's stock of
goods had just arrived, and there was a great
pile of sacks, boxes, and bales piled in the back
end of the building, while at the other end the
ventriloquist stationed himself behind a curtain.
The big room was literally packed with miners,
all standing, while the pile of goods in the rear
was covered with men, among whom was our
old friend Doctor Woodward, sitting upon a
sack of Sandwich Island potatoes.

The performance was a Punch and Judy af-
fair, and wound up with a production of the
Devil, horns and all, who looked terrifying
enough. The head and shoulders of his Satanic

114

Diversions and Amusements 115

Majesty appeared just above the curtain, and
by means of some wire attachment he was made
to move his lips and chin as in talking. He
made quite a speech, saying, among other
things, that in this wild region where there were
no infernal laws to bother, no society, no ladies,
and no churches to make a great fuss about
nothing, it was perfectly proper and commend-
able to get drunk on Sunday and have a good
time. Meantime Dr. Woodward, with a few
jolts under his belt, had been busy cutting open
a sack of potatoes, from which he selected a
large one (worth a dollar, by the way), and
threw it over the heads of the crowd below him,
striking the Devil squarely in the face. The
Devil dropped behind the curtain and remained
out of sight until the yells and swinging of hats
had ceased; then he came cautiously into view
above the curtain and, with a long, bony finger
pointed at Dr. Woodward, solemnly said:
' ' Doc, Doc Woodward, I have a lien on you. ' '
The summer months were now nearly gone,
Yankee Slide was almost worked out, and the
River Company was broke, and it was a sad
and a touching sight as those miners packed
their blankets and struck out for other dig-
gings, — without an ounce of dust and heavily
in debt to the merchants, when they had, in
fact, expected to be carrying fortunes back to
the loved ones far away. But such was the fate
of a large majority of the miners of those days.

116 A California Pioneer

A few weeks later our claim was exhausted,
and in the last stope it was necessary for one
man to bail out water while two men worked on
their padded knees in water five or six inches
deep, while from the springy ground overhead
saffron-colored water dripped down their backs.

CHAPTER Xn

JUST AN INCIDENT

The face of Yankee Slide toward tlie river
side had an angle of about forty-five degrees,
while the top, which was about four hundred
feet wide and nearly level, was well covered
with pine and spruce trees, many of them being
five and six feet in diameter ; and it was here we
obtained our supply of lagging for timbering
the mines below. The trees were sawed into
four-foot lengths and then split into boards six
inches wide and one and a half inches thick,
and were either carried down to the entrance
to the tunnels or bound in bundles and hauled
down by hand with a rope.

About one hundred feet below the mouth of
our tunnel there was a bench of land about fifty
feet wide and seventy-five feet long, upon which
a man by the name of Holmes had put up a
building, and in which he was conducting a
store. It was a house typical of the time, with
poles set in the ground, and top and sides cov-
ered with canvas. The structure was about
thirty feet wide and fifty feet long, and there
was aa open space between it and this steep

117

118 A California Pioneer

hillside, — a space just wide enougli for a pack
train to pass along. At the north, or np-river
end, of this building there was a bar built of
split boards, while along the east side there was
a row of tables made of the same material.
The remainder of the floor space was filled with
all kinds of groceries, provisions, and miners'
supplies.

About three hundred yards above this store
there was a mine that was being worked by-
three men, one of whom had been injured some
time before in hauling lagging timber down
this steep mountain side; and these partners
made up their minds to avoid the further chance
of injury, by rolling a big log down and then
cutting it up at the mouth of their tunnel.

Proceeding to a point on the top of the Slide
close to the edge of the fall toward the river,
and about equidistant from their mine and from
the store, they cut down a tree, — about thirty-
six feet long and more than five feet in diameter
at the larger end and tapering to about three
feet at the smaller end, — and after making due
allowance for this difference in diameter, they
had calculated to the nicety of a gnat's heel that,
by starting the log on its journey at a particu-
lar angle, it was absolutely certain that it would
land just exactly at the place they wanted it at
the mouth of their tunnel.

Everything was now in readiness, and the log
was started on its dash for the bottom, but "the

Just an Incident 119

best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley,"
and wMle the log went all right for part of the
way, it soon struck against an oak tree, which
reversed the log and turned the big end up-
stream, and away it went, hellbent for Holmes'
store.

There were fifteen or twenty men inside the
store, — drinking, playing cards, or trading, —
and they were now in imminent danger ; but, for-
tunately, the cook, happening to glance up from
his pots and kettles, saw the log coming and
shouted to the men, who "streaked it" out of
the building, the last man emerging just as the
log struck the building at a point about four
feet above the ground, and went through it as
if it had been thistledown. The building was
literally sheared off; and flour, pickles, meal,
sugar, beans, soap, crackers, New Orleans mo-
lasses, vinegar, whiskey, bar fixtures, tables,
and so on were strewn and scattered over the
rocks all the way between the store and the
river, fifty feet away.

A big crowd of men gathered, and Holmes
stood apart from them, hatless and forlorn,
contemplating the devastation. While he stood
thus in reverie, the three miners responsible for
the trouble appeared and asked him if his name
was Holmes, to which he replied that that had
been his name five minutes before, but that he
did not know what his name was now.

They proposed to Hoknes to set about at once

120 A California Pioneer

rebuilding the store, and as soon as the amount
of damage was ascertained they would imme-
diately pay it.

Dozens of men now went to work cleaning up
the rubbish, getting posts, cutting poles, sew-
ing canvas for covering, and gathering up the
scattered merchandise, and by sundown they
had a better looking building than the one that
had been destroyed; for, instead of presenting
to the beholder a vision of plain walls, it was
now liberally sprinkled with great patches of
color made by molasses, whiskey, vinegar, and
canned goods.

Just here I will call attention to a book of
travels that I once read called ' ' Sights in Cali-
fornia and Scenes by the Way," — a book of
which I believed every word, because in its last
chapter I found related two incidents that were
within my personal knowledge. One of these
was this :

Eagle City, situated three miles up the river
from Volcano, had about five hundred voters,
and the wise men there set themselves to the
task of electing a justice of the peace, saying
that Volcano could dig gold on election day.
Across the river from Volcano there were seven
men working a claim, who were all relatives,
and one of whom was a fool ; but he could shovel
as well as a wise man, and it was understood
that he was to be made use of until the claim
was worked out, and then was to be abandoned

Just an Incident 121

to shift for himself. Volcano could not endure
this snub offered it by Eagle City, and a caucus
was held the night before election, and this fool
was nominated for justice of the peace. Al-
though it was a state election, the rest of the
ticket was ignored as of no importance. With
the votes of the miners at Volcano, aided by
those of the roughs and gamblers at Eagle
City, the fool was elected by a handsome ma-
jority. This ended that day's sport, but the
night was one of peril.

In 1849 a dam constructed of logs, rocks and
brush had been thrown across the river at the
upper end of Volcano Bar. It still remained
and a sheet, of water about four feet deep,
caused by a cloudburst, was now pouring over
it. At the center of this dam stood a post, —
a log, — which extended about five feet above the
water, while below the dam the river was white
with foam, and the waters swirled and beat
against the rocks and bowlders so that no land
animal could have gone over this dam and sur-
vived.

The seven men to whom I have referred had
attended the election at Volcano, and at sun-
down started back. They had a small log boat
capable of carrying two men, and, with the fool
at the bow of the boat and one of the other men
in the stern with the paddle, the boat was
started across. Upon reaching the middle of
the river it became apparent to the man in the

122 A California Pioneer

stern that lie would be unable to react either
shore, as the boat was being carried rapidly
downstream ; and just as it was about to go over
the dam he jumped for this post and succeeded
in holding fast to it, his feet resting on the top
of the dam and his head and shoulders just
above the water. The boat and the "Justice"
went over the dam, and neither was seen again.

The post was about seventy-five feet from
either shore, and in a few moments the entire
population of the town was at the river, dis-
cussing plans for a rescue. There was a big
skiff used as a ferry at Eagle City, and it being
known that it could not be bought nor borrowed,
three of our men went up in the dark and stole
it, then brought it down to where we were.

By this time it was so dark that we could not
see the man clinging to the post, except by the
light of a big log fire that we had built. There
was a rope extended across the river above the
dam, which was held up by numerous empty
tin cans, and to the center of this rope we tied
another rope about seventy-five feet long, and
to the lower end of it was attached a block of
light wood. We then untied the ends of the
cross-river rope and moved it downstream un-
til the block was within reach of the clinging
man ; but the roughness of the water, as it beat
against the post, deflected the block to right and
left, and it was some time before he was able to
get hold of it. We then yelled to him not to

Just an Incident 123

let loose of the post but to cling to it with all
his might, and we would pull him off; because
it was apparent that if he should let go and
there should be the least slack in the rope, he
would go over the dam.

We now pulled the rope taut, and, when he
did let go of the post, he shot up the river eight
or ten feet, as though hurled from a catapult.
We drew him unconscious to the shore, but hot
blankets, vigorous rubbing, and liberal pota-
tions of hot whiskey revived him and brought
him around all right, and at three o'clock in
the morning we all went to bed.

CHAPTEE Xni

EIGHT PLACE — WEONQ TIME

About the 20th of October our claim on Yan-
kee Slide was completely worked out. Al-
vin and I intended to leave for San Francisco,
on our way to Wisconsin, on the first day of
November; but as there were eight others who
were going to leave on the fifteenth, we con-
cluded to go all together. I was now quite ill
from my last siege underground, and needed
sunshine; and as the sun did not reach down
into this canyon until half -past ten in the morn-
ing and disappeared at three o'clock in the
afternoon, the doctor advised me to go to Co-
loma, where there was plenty of sunshine, and
to wait there for the remainder of our party,

I started on this trip afoot, wearing a long
blouse, which covered a belt containing about
twenty-five pounds of gold dust worth about five
thousand dollars. I carried a six-shooter in an-
other belt on the outside. I followed a zigzag
trail up to Old Longy's, where I stopped over-
night, and the next morning set out for George-
town over a good, broad trail that had been
well brushed out, in order to accommodate the

124

Bight Place — Wrong Time 125

pack mule trains carrying supplies to the mines
along the river and its tributaries.

"When about eight miles from Georgetown my
trail led through a belt of very thick brush
about eight or ten feet high. Suddenly I heard
a rustling in the brush on my right, and upon
looking in that direction, observed the topmost
twigs moving in such a way as to indicate that
whatever was causing the twigs to move was
headed toward the trail at a point ahead of me.
I thought it was probably a coyote or wild cat,
and I drew my pistol, and pointing it ahead of
me along the trail, mentally remarked :

"I will break you of killing chickens."

As I held my pistol thus pointing, out stepped
a man holding a cooked pistol by his side, but,
fortunately, his pistol was down and mine was
up. We eyed each other for a few seconds,
whereupon he said :

"Are you going to Georgetown? If so, there
is plenty of room to pass."

I replied that I was going to Georgetown, but
that I did not propose to go ahead of a man
who would sneak into a trail with a pistol in
his hand, and I said to him :

"Drop it quick."

He did so ; and as the weapon was cocked the
jar discharged it, and the bullet buried itself
in the ground, I asked him if he had any more
firearms about him, and he shook his head. I

126 A California Pioneer

then said to liim that a highwayman might
easily be a liar, and for him to turn around and
walk slowly down the trail ahead of me; which
he did.

When I reached the place where his pistol
had dropped, I picked it up and threw it as
far as I could into the brush. Of course I knew
that if I took him into Georgetown he would be
hanged within two hours, — and perhaps I ought
to have driven him in, but I had never been in
favor of "lynch law," and I also now knew
from experience just how a man feels when he
is about to be hanged ; so I simply could not do
it. When we had gone about two miles and
were out in the open country, I pointed to a
large pine tree about fifty yards to the right
and told him to go there and to stay there un-
til I got out of sight. And this he did.

When I arrived at the hotel in Georgetown
I told of this experience, and the proprietor
was wild because I had not brought the high-
wayman into town, saying there had been sev-
eral miners robbed in that same belt of brush
during the summer, and he wanted me to stay
over a day and he would get up a crowd and
burn the brush and drive the highwayman out,
so that I could identify him; but this idea was
abandoned, as a fire would involve the probable
destruction of several miners ' cabins.

The next morning, however, a posse was sent

Bight Place — Wrong Time 127

out. But I never learned whether the man was
apprehended, as on that day I went on to Co-
loma, where I remained until my brother and
the rest of our party came along.

CHAPTER XIV

HOMEWAED BOUND

Wb traveled by stage from Coloma to Sacra-
mento, and then by steamer to San Francisco, —
the steamer trip costing an ounce of dust.

In 1849 the good ship Niantic, having been de-
serted by her crew, at high tide floated to the
southwest corner of Washington and Mont-
gomery Streets, where it lodged; and it had
been fitted up and was now doing duty as the
Niantic Hotel, Here we remained until ready
to sail for the Isthmus.

Unable to get berths on the steamer, we were
booked in the steerage at three hundred dol-
lars each, paying for our passage in gold dust
at sixteen dollars an ounce, — dust that was
worth nineteen dollars at the Philadelphia mint.

The site of the Palace Hotel was then nothing
but sand dunes, while west of Dupont Street
there was a mass of brush. We went to an
elevation from which we could see the Golden
Gate, the islands in the bay, and the Oakland
and Alameda shores, with the green hills be-
yond, upon which wild cattle then roamed. We
then went aboard our ship and selected our

128

Homeward Bownd 129

bunks in the steerage, but, upon examining tbe
mattresses, beat a retreat, as we here found
denizens whom we feared, if they got mad,
might pull the mattresses from under us. We
never went into that hole again, but slept on
deck. Fortunately, too, we had taken the pre-
caution of carrying with us a good supply of
grub.

The steamer was overloaded with passengers,
and the living conditions were such that I shall
not even attempt to describe them.

We arrived at Panama seventeen days out
from San Francisco, and anchored a mile from
shore. Here the passengers were taken in the
ship's boats, but they could not get nearer than
about one hundred feet from the shore, and
from there the passengers were carried upon
the backs of the natives. We had expected to
go on horseback across the Isthmus, but the
travel had been so great that there was not a
horse, mule, or jackass to be had ; so we started
on foot for Cruces on the Chagres River, from
which point boats would take us to Chagres Bay,
where we could board a steamer for New York.

At San Francisco I had bought a pair of
patent leather shoes, thinking they would be
nice to wear on board ship, and not expecting
that I would have to do any walking on the
Isthmus.

We started across the Isthmus on foot, and as
there had been a recent heavy rainfall, which

130 A Calif ornia Pioneer

compelled us to walk at times througli mud and
water, my shoes fell to pieces at a point about
seven miles from Panama, and I was able to
bind tbe soles to my feet only by tearing a pair
of drawers and an undershirt into strips and
tying them around.

About eight miles from Cruces we came upon
a saloon, which was a building covered with
bamboo poles from the eaves down to a point
about two feet from the ground, leaving an open
space for light and ventilation. Alvin caught
sight of a pair of shoes upon the floor of this
building, which could be reached from the out-
side through this open space, and at his sugges-
tion I called the dozen tall black fellows sitting
about to come to the bar for drinks, while Alvin
quietly slipped out, reached in and stole this
pair of shoes, then started down the trail. If
I am to be regarded as a particeps criminis in
this transaction, I justify it upon the ground of
necessity, which knows no law, and upon the
further consideration that there was no evi-
dence that these shoes had any owner, and if
they did have an owner, he evidently had two
pairs of shoes, while I had none, and in that
country one pair of shoes would seem to be suf-
ficient for any man of ordinary means.

We soon overtook Alvin, and I foimd that,
by putting on two pair of socks and stuffing in
a couple of handkerchiefs, I could wear these
brogans, but fearing that they might be missed

Homeward Bound 131

and that I would be pursued, I took the lead and
ran nearly all the way to Cruces ; but just be-
fore reaching there I threw them away and went
in my stocking feet into town, where I bought
another pair of shoes.

At this point we hired a boat and boatmen
and started down the river, but it soon became
so dark that we were compelled to make camp
for the night. We got started on our way the
next morning at sunrise, and reached Chagres
about noon, where we expected to take the
steamer for New York, but because of head
winds and rough weather our steamer had gone
to Navy Bay, now Colon. The railroad then in
course of construction had reached the Chagres
Eiver at a point about ten miles above Chagres,
whither we were taken in a small stem wheel
steamer, and here we boarded a train made up
of construction cars. As the road had not yet
been ballasted we bumped along at about four
miles an hour to Navy Bay, and here in the good
ship Georgia, — a great, high, round-nosed,
side-wheeled old tub, — took passage for New
York.

We stopped at Havana about five hours to
take on coal. A rebellion had just been sup-
pressed, and the leader, Lopez, was to be ex-
ecuted that very day. I did not attend the
execution, but some of our party did ; and they
reported the execution to have taken place as
follows :

132 ^A California Pioneer

There was a great castiron box with an open-
ing in it JTist large enough for a man to sit down
in. The victim was put in this box, and the box
was then closed and fitted closely around his
neck, leaving his head outside at the top. With
a machine something like a derrick they low-
ered a great iron clamp, which, as it reached
the victim's head, opened and took in his head,
whereupon the clamp was drawn upward, pull-
ing off the head of the victim, while the blood
from the broken arteries of his neck ran, like
water from a garden hose, over the iron block
to the ground. The execution took place in the
beautiful Plaza, and was witnessed by thou-
sands; the barbarous method of execution em-
ployed being adopted to strike terror to the
soul of those that dared rebel against Spanish
rule, but, as might be expected, it had just the
opposite effect, and the plotting of treason still
went on.

On Christmas day we reached New York, and
by one o 'clock that afternoon the barbers, bath
houses, and clothing stores had so changed our
appearance that we hardly knew one another
when we met for lunch. To see a white-haired
man was a curiosity to us, for there was none
such in California, and here in New York we
fairly gaped at them as we met them on the
streets. We spent two days in seeing the
sights, and then came our parting, and it was
indeed hard to separate from those who had

Homeward Bov/nd 133

been friends in the exciting scenes and incidents
througii wMch we had passed. We put on bold
faces, however, shook hands, and started in dif-
ferent directions for the loved ones at home.

Alvin and I arrived at Beloit, Wisconsin,
January 20, 1852, having been detained on the
way two weeks, when Alvin was attacked with
Panama fever.

We were now home again, and as during my
absence Elizabeth had not found a fellow she
thought would make a better husband than I,
we were married on the 19th of the following
month.

CHAPTER XV

THE SECOND TEIP ACEOSS

Befobe leaving California I liad determined
to get back there just as quickly as I could, so
I immediately set about preparing for my sec-
ond trip "the plains across."

The experience I had gained on my first trip
convinced me that ox teams would be prefer-
able to horse teams, and, as I was fitting out for
the second journey, not a little fun was made of
me by my friends on this account; yet I knew
that, there being no railroad, the dull ox was
the next fastest means of travel. The explana-
tion of which is this :

The horse was constructed by nature as a
faster animal than the ox, and his paunch is
but a few inches in diameter and lays length-
wise of his body so as not to interfere with his
movements, and he requires more condensed
and richer food, which must be masticated be-
fore it is swallowed. Therefore, if you put him
on a grass diet alone, he spends the whole night
selecting the choicest and richest tufts of grass,
and when sunrise comes he goes into the har-
ness without sleep, — and no animal can live

134

The Second Trip Across 135

without sleep. Of course he occasionally shuts
his eyes while leaning against the collar, but
the crack of the whip soon reminds him that
he is the servant of the two-legged beast on
the box, and the result is that within four weeks
after crossing the Missouri his ribs show as
plainly as black hoops on a white barrel, and
then between Fort Laramie and the summit of
the Rocky Mountains, — at some camp ground
out of the way of the emigrant travel, — two or
three weeks are lost in resting and feeding.
Experience showed that about thirty per cent
of the horses never reached the Sierra Nevada
Mountains.

Upon the other hand, the slow ox has a bread
basket that holds about a bushel ; with his rough
tongue, a foot long, he reaches out and sweeps
in whatever comes in its way, and in two hours
he has his fill, then lies down and puts in the
whole night in sleep, raising a cud of food from
one side of the basket, chewing and then de-
positing it on the other side, until the whole
has been masticated. He has, moreover, slept
through the entire operation, and at sunrise he
is ready for the yoke, and, if not driven more
than twenty miles a day, he reaches the summit
of the South Pass of the Rockies fit for the
shambles, and has already commenced to over-
take the horse trains that crossed the Missouri
at the same time.

I fitted out four teams of five yoke each, and

136 A California Pioneer

took along also sixteen extra oxen and fifty-
cows. Alvin was again a member of onr com-
pany, as was also brother John, with Ms wife
and three children. I took also twenty-one pas-
sengers, who paid one hundred and twenty-five
dollars each, and who agreed to do their equal
share of the work on the way over.

"We left Beloit March 2, 1852, and crossed
the Mississippi at Dnbnqne, and later crossed
the Missouri at Council Bluffs. At that time
Iowa was inhabited only along the streams
and belts of timber, and the broad prairies were
well covered with last year's growth of grass.

There was an occasional belt of wet laad,
from fifty to seventy-five feet wide, with tus-
socks and tan blade grass, which we were able
to cross by lengthening our ox teams so that
there would be two or three pairs of oxen on
the firm ground ahead.

Our wagons were taken across the Missouri
one at a time in a scow,— at five dollars a trip,—
but my own men had to do all the rowing, and
as the river was raging we had to start in the
water about half a mile above the come-out on
the other side. "We got the oxen across this
stream by leading two of them behind a boat,
and driving the others in to follow them, two
men following in a skiff to keep the loose cattle
from turning back. Our crossing was made
without any mishap, and we stopped for the

The Second Trip 'Across 137

nigM at the site of the present city of Omaha.
Old Sarpie was still trading there, and he in-
formed Tis that the Pawnees were hostile and
giving much trouble because the emigrants were
slaughtering ten times as much game as they
had any use for, — leaving much of it to rot,
while the Pawnee women and children were
starving. He said we should have at least fifty
men, and that one hundred would be better, un-
til we reached the Sioux nation, which was
friendly.

We, of course, had not molested the Pawnees
nor their game, but were well aware that for
the violation of his laws the Indian holds re-
sponsible not only the individual but the tribe
to which he may belong.

We here joined a company of sixteen men,
with four wagons and fifty oxen ; and now, with
forty men in aU, we moved westward March
19th. At the Loup we rested for a day, and
here were joined by a company in charge of two
men named Beam and Pugh, with forty men and
five hundred head of cattle. We agreed to
travel separately, but for safety were to camp
together each night until we reached the Sioux
nation.

I here digress to remark that when our com-
pany had reached a point about two hundred
miles west of the Missouri we were overtaken
by a train of horse teams, made up of five

138 A California Pioneer

wagons, witli four horses each. Upon the side
of each wagon was lettered in bold type

"SACRAMENTO OR BUST."

As they gayly passed us by, one of the drivers
asked if we had any word to send to friends in
Sacramento, but having made the trip with
horse teams myself, I felt quite safe of my
ground in answering that we would be in Sacra-
mento thirty days before he reached that town,
and sure enough we overtook and passed this
company at a point about fifty miles before we
reached the desert, where they had been com-
pelled to stop for days, in order to rest their
worn-out teams.

We were now in the buffalo country, yet not
a rifle was permitted to be fired by any of our
company. The buffalo had all been frightened
away from the river bottom by the continual
firing of the emigrants, but they could be seen
on the low hills to the north of the Platte bot-
tom.

One evening two Indians came to our camp, —
and after I had exchanged some sugar, corn
meal, a loaf "of bread, and a chunk of boiled beef
for a pair of leggins, a buckskin purse, and a
belt, for which I had no use, — I told them to tell
their Chief that I would give him two plugs of
tobacco and five pounds of sugar for a buffalo,
if he would send men to help kill it. I thought

The Second Trip Across 139

my having him send his own men a wise pre-
caution to avoid any misunderstanding.

The next morning they arrived, and I sent
two men with them. They soon came upon a
big buffalo in a low swag in the plain, and as
our men were not accustomed to shooting big
game, they shot him in every place but the right
one, and he stampeded and came on the dead
run headed straight for our train. It is a mat-
ter of common knowledge that a wounded or
stampeded buffalo is utterly oblivious of ob-
structions in his way, and as we saw him com-
ing we plied our whips in order to get out of
the way, but he struck squarely against one of
the front wheels of our hind wagon, and fell
dead in his tracks. It took us a day and a half
to repair that wheel with wood taken from a
cotton wood log, — the only material we could
find, — and meantime Beam and Pugh were far
ahead of- us; as we were in a hostile country
this boded us no good. The Big Chief of the
Pawnees lived on the Missouri ; but every thirty
or forty miles we found a sub-chief.

On the second day after this occurrence our
forward scouts came on the run, and reported
that about one hundred Indians were coming to
meet us on the road ahead.

CHAPTER XVI

MENACED BY THE PAWNEES

As soon as tlie Pawnees came in sigM I no-
ticed that tlie Chief was about forty feet in the
lead, and the Indians were divided into the same
number of groups as there were wagons in our
train. I thought that I knew exactly what this
meant, for when they stopped it would bring a
group right opposite each one of our wagons.
Brother John was driviag the hind wagon, aad
I was sitting on the forward end of it with my
feet on the tongue hounds. I signaled to the
men in the rear to drive the loose stock along-
side of our wagons, and for all of them to arm
for defense. Each man had a rifle and a pistol,
and there were three men to each wagon who
took turns in driving, and these were all quickly
out of their wagons and on the side of the
wagons opposite the ones upon which the In-
dians were coming.

When the Chief reached a point opposite our
wagon I was standing up on the hounds. He
stopped and whirled around to throw his spear
at John, but I had meantime made a jump to
the ground, and stood before him with the muz-

140

Menaced hy the Pawnees 141

zle of my rifle almost against his breast. His
spear was poised ready to throw, for what
seemed to me to be a long time, bnt it perhaps
did not exceed fifteen seconds. Meantime, aU
the teams had stopped, and both sides were
ready for the signal from the Chief, bnt it did
not come ; for he lowered his spear and rested
the end of the shaft on the ground, then turned
half around, without moving his head but keep-
ing his eyes on the muzzle of my rifle, then
broke and ran for the river, while the balance
of his warriors followed.

I sent two men to ride down a low swale which
here came down from the north, to watch the In-
dians, whUe another man was sent on ahead to
overtake Beam and Pugh and ask them to wait
until we came up. The scouts reported that the
Indians had forded the Platte to an Indian vil-
lage, and at least two hundred of them had gone
up the river and crossed back to the north side
at a belt of timber about five miles ahead of us,
where they no doubt expected we would camp
for the night, and they would fall upon us when
most of us were asleep. The man who had
been sent on ahead reported that he had gone
at least ten mUes and had seen no sign of Beam
or Pugh, so we concluded to go into camp at
once. We placed the wagons in a circle and
lashed the tongue of each wagon to the inside
hind wheel of the one ahead. We then dug
rifle pits around this corral of wagons and piled

142 A California Pioneer'

Tip a sod fence, to prevent spears and arrows
striking tlie women or children.

Our camp was in a belt of resin weed, and the
old last year's stocks were from four to five feet
high and quite thick. We made no fire to guide
the Indians to our camp, but suppered on hard-
tack, cold buffalo meat, and Platte River water.
Our firearms were now examined, cleaned and
loaded, and at sundown the stock was all put in
the corral and tied to the wagons and to the big
ropes, about sixty feet long, which we had
stretched across the corral and made fast to the
tops of the wheels, after which each man took
his rifle pit, laid his revolver on the top of the
sod fence, and we were ready for the night's
vigil.

We had with us four dogs, one of them a
large Newfoundland. He was led around on
the outside of the corral two or three times, the
other dogs following, and the rope was then
taken off and they were told to watch. These
dogs seemed to understand the situation as well
as we did, and I do not believe they lay down or
stopped walking around that camp until they
were all dead the next morning.

A few minutes before the first streak of day-
light showed, they all set up a terrific howling,
and would run off into the tall weeds, growling
and snarling, then run back to camp, apparently
to learn if we too were on the watch. Oc-
casionally there would be a mournful yelp, as

Menaced by the Pawnees 143

a dog received a deadly thrust from a spear,
and within five minutes they were all killed.

Then followed a profound and oppressive si-
lence, then the breaking of the dried resin weed
as some moccasined foot pressed it. A little
more light, and we could see over this resin-
weed thicket an Indian head appear here and
there for an instant, then disappear, only to
come in view again, — still nearer.

In a few moments the leaders were within
twenty-five yards of our camp, waiting for the
war whoop of their Chief, while we were watch-
ing for the same signal. But the whoop did not
come, for the sight of those forty rifles and the
pistols lying on the breast-work evidently made
those savages realize that an attack meant the
loss of half their men.

A peculiar yeU was now given by their Chief,
and the Indians beat a hasty retreat, going
straight over the resin weeds. Some of our
men wanted to shoot them as they retreated,
but, as this would only have increased our
danger of attack later on by larger numbers,
not a shot was fired.

We immediately broke camp and were soon
on our way, keeping a scout one mile in front
and another one mile to the rear to watch the
Indians. I sent another man ahead to overtake
Beam and Pugh, which he did near the west
line of the Pawnee Nation, and they imme-
diately went into camp to wait for us, who, by

144 A California Pioneer

continuous driving, readied them, at eight
o'clock in the evening, having made a forty-
five mile journey in approximately fifteen hours.
Incidentally, it was forty hours since we had
cooked a meal. They kindly took our stock to
the river and guarded them all night, and soon
had ready for us barbecued buffalo steak, big
cans of hot coffee, and Dutch ovens full of hot
biscuits.

Beam and Pugh started early the next morn-
ing while we did not leave until after lunch.
"We went about five miles, which took us out of
the Pawnee country, and here we remained for
that day and the following day, to rest our
stock.

CHAPTEE XVII

AT SAOEAMENTO — FLOOD AND FIEE

Beam and Pugh passed us, and we passed
them, several times before reacKing California,
and the last time I saw them was at a point
about three miles east of the summit of the
Sierra Nevadas. I shall never forget their
kindness in delaying their own journey in order
to protect our company from a hostile tribe of
Indians.

There is little worth recording from here un-
til we reached the meadows on the Humboldt
River, which were about twenty-five miles above
the Sink. Here my wife, brother John, and
two other men were sick with fever, and thirteen
of my passengers deserted me, taking their
blankets and leaving during the night. At this
point I abandoned the wagon with the cotton-
wood wheel, and put six pair of oxen to each
of the three remaining wagons, in one of which
we carried twelve tin cans, with which I pro-
posed to carry water on the desert. They had
been filled with supplies of various kinds, but
were now empty. Two of these cans would
reach across the wagon bed. We filled them

145

146 A California Pioneer

with water and started for the Sink, which we
reached the next day.

Before daylight the next morning we were
well out on the desert, and before sundown
reached the edge of the fifteen miles of soft
sand. Here we watered the stock and rested
for a few hours, and at eleven o'clock at night
started over the fifteen mile strip. There was
a slight breeze blowing from the south, and
when we got within ten miles of the Carson, the
stock all smelled the water, and the teams
walked as fast as they could and without being
urged, while the loose stock passed the wagons
on their way to water, which we reached at
about half-past three in the morning. "We
crossed the mountains without mishap, and
camped temporarily where a tributary of the
Sacramento Eiver reaches the plain.

Uncle Ira went to the mines, brother Alvin
into the hotel business, while John and I leased
a ranch on the west side of the Sacramento
Eiver, about two miles below the city.

Our house stood on posts three feet high,
and this looked suspicious to me, but as we
knew nothing about floods we thought no more
of it. I bought two sows at fifty dollars each,
and twelve chickens at four dollars each, and
went to farming.

Our crops were getting along nicely, and
then it began to rain; and it kept on raining for
a month. The river was rising rapidly, and

At Sacramento — Flood and Fire 147

our neighbors were collecting their stock and
taking it across the river to Sacramento and
then to the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. We
got our stock, — consisting of eighty head of
cattle and horses, — gathered, intending to take
them across the river the next day; but about
two o'clock in the morning we heard water run-
ning under the house, and upon investigation
found that it was up to the sills and sweeping
off toward the big tule swamp to the west.
Very soon all of our stock, including cattle,
horses, hogs and chickens, had been swept into
that tule lake and drowned, with the single ex-
ception of one horse that had climbed on top
of the woodpile.

The course of the river banks was marked
only by a belt of oaks that stood up in the vast
waste of water. We had wood enough in the
house to last two days, and knowing that the
supply would be exhausted before we would
likely be rescued, we waded in water up to our
necks to a clump of small oaks about fifty yards
from the house, and against which the hen
house had lodged, and we chopped this up and
floated the pieces to the house, piling them on
the porch. The posts at each end of the house
stood the flood aU right, but those in the center
gave way, whereupon the floor settled in the
center and parted, and water to the depth of
a foot rushed in, although the floor was dry at
each end.

148 A Gcdifomia Pioneer

We existed under these difficulties for eight
days, and on the fourth day, to add to the gay-
ety of our situation, a young lady called upon
us. She should have been ashamed of the way
she was dressed, and probably she was ; for she
was as red as a Pajaro apple, and weighed nine
and three-quarter pounds.

Phillips, a French fisherman, to whom we had
given the privilege of pitching his tent and
stretching his net on the river bank, hearing an
Unusual squall from the house, asked John :
"For God's sake what is that?"
"That is a sea nymph that Carr's wife caught
during the flood," answered John. "It came
up through that hole in the floor."

And our young lady visitor was called
"Nymph," until she went to school.

After the flood waters had receded, we hired
two men to chop wood, which we sold in Sacra-
mento at twenty-five dollars a cord. John
made two boats, one of which would carry a
cord and a half, — ^whioh was used to take the
wood to Sacramento,— while the other would
carry about half a cord, and was used for de-
livering the wood to purchasers. The water
had been from three to five feet deep in the
streets, but was now drained off and the soft
mud was from three inches to two feet deep.
For motive power I had a pair of oxen, and
walked in my long gum boots when the mud was
shallow, and rode in the boat when the mud was

'At Sacramento — Flood and Fire 149

too deep. Later on we hauled wood with a
horse team, and were engaged in this work
when the great fire broke out in Sacramento.
I assisted ia moving merchandise threatened by
this fire, and for this I was paid ten dollars a
load.

On reaching the southwest comer of the plaza
with a load of cooking stoves, I noticed a big
barrel in the street, with the head knocked in.
It apparently contained some kind of liquor,
for a lot of men were standing around drinking
from long beer glasses, and considering the size
of these glasses I concluded the liquor must be
light wine of some kind, and I asked for a drink,
and some one passed up a big glass full. After
I had drank about half of it I mistrusted that
it was something stronger, and I asked the men
what it was.

"Brandy, you chump!" they replied.

I had never tasted brandy before, and I be-
came very much intoxicated, for the first and
only time in my life. I had heard that vinegar
would check the effect of strong drink, so I
quickly bought a bottle of pickles, drank the
vinegar and ate the pickles; but all to no pur-
pose, for I was thoroughly soused, and I remem-
ber that I unloaded these stoves as if they had
been cord wood, for I was now feeling rich and
cared nothing for expense.

Then a Hebrew tobacconist piled his goods on
my wagon, and his wife, with a large mirror,

150 A California Pioneer

got on the seat beside me, I demanded my ten
dollars, but he replied :

"I pay no bills to-day."

I stopped my team and began to unload his
loose boxes of cigars among the crowd, to which
they helped themselves, whereupon my ten dol-
lars was paid. This load was to be delivered
north of J Street among a lot of gigantic syca-
mores, and in passing under one of them, a
branch shoved its way clear through the big
mirror, and my lady passenger immediately ac-
cused me of being as drunk as a fool, which I
presume Was approximately true.

By the time I got back, the fire was in full
swing, the Court House was in flames, and
Sacramento was soon in ashes.

During the following fall, — John having gone
to Nevada City, — I took off the crop, and with
a span of horses and a wagon, my wife and the
sea nymph, and with one cow tied behind, and
five hundred dollars in my pocket, I went to
Nevada City and engaged in the milk business,
purchasing ten cows, for which I paid forty dol-
lars a head.

Soon thereafter a destructive fire swept
Nevada City, and as all my best customers had
been burned out, and it would be months be-
fore it would be normal there again, I deter-
mined to move to Marin County,

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WRECKS OP THE SEA NYMPH AND LONG ISLAND

I LOCATED at Point Eeyes in Marin County,
probably the best dairy county in the state.
This was in 1858. This whole country, from
Point Reyes to Point Tomales, was stocked with
Spanish cattle, many of them very wild, and the
grizzly and cinnamon bears were very plentiful,
doing great damage to the stock. I here en-
gaged in dairying, — shipping produce to San
Francisco.

While living at this place I witnessed the
wreck of the Sea Nymph about two miles north
of Point Reyes. During the night we were
awakened by the shooting of a cannon, and upon
going to the beach, found this ship stranded.
Soon there were about thirty men gathered on
the beach, and by means of a kite a small rope
was sent to shore, and to this was attached a
hawser, which was made fast on the shore and
then drawn taut with a capstan. In this way
all those aboard ship, except one .man, were
saved.

On the day before Christmas, 1862, I loaded
eight boxes of butter and seventy head of hogs

151

152 A California Pioneer

aboard the schooner Long Island, which plied
between Tomales Bay and San Francisco.
Captain Sid Nelson asked me to make the trip
with him, to take charge of the hogs and the
unloading of them when they reached San Fran-
cisco; and he urged me to hurry home and
change my clothes as quickly as I could, because
he had to get out of Tomales Bay on the turn
of the tide,— now ahnost due. He informed me
also that he was to be married that night at
ten o'clock. I hurried Jiome and changed my
clothes, but my wife had a presentiment of
danger, caused by the white caps that were then
breaking as far as the eye could reach, and she
begged me not to go on the schooner, Isut to go
on horseback by way of San Rafael. To please
her I agreed, and more than once on that night's
trip, when it was so dark I could not even see
my horse's head, I mentally remarked that if
it had not been for my wife's unreasonable
fright of a few white caps I would now be in
'the little cabin on the Long Island fast asleep.

I reached San Rafael at midnight, and in the
morning crossed the bay, and on reaching San
Francisco went to the wharf where Nelson was
to discharge cargo ; but he was not there. _

We could see great billows rolling in and
breaking on the bar at the Golden Gate, and I
noticed an elderly gentleman and a young lady
walMng back and forth on the wharf, gazing
anxiously out at these great billows, and from

Wrecks of Sea Nymph and Long Iskmd 153

the apparent anxiety shown by this young lady
I concluded that she must be the Captain's
fiancee, so I asked if they were looking for the
Long Islcmd. The young lady replied :

* ' Yes. Do you know anything about that ves-
sel?"

I answered that I had put freight on board
of the Long Island yesterday in Tomales Bay.
She then inquired whether I thought Nelson
could have got out of that bay agaiast the head
wind of yesterday. I told her that I thought
he got out all right ; whereupon she turned white
as a sheet, and seeing that I had frightened
her, I made haste to explain (I did not then
think the vessel was lost) , telling her not to be
alarmed about Captain Nelson, that he was a
good sailor and a careful man, that I had made
several trips with him from Tomales to San
Francisco, and that when he came in sight of
the breakers he would probably run back un-
der Point Reyes to shelter, coming in when the
bar should be smooth again. She replied:

"I know Nelson better than you. He had an
appointment at our house last night with a lot
of friends, and if he got out of Tomales yester-
day, he is lost."

The old gentleman, noticing the girl's agita-
tion, gently slipped his arm around her, say-
ing:

"Come, let's go home."

It was now near noon, and when I went to

154 A Calif ornia Pioneer

tlie Russ House for lunch I learned that the
Long Islcmd had gone to the bottom, taking
with her Captain Nelson, two passengers, and
three sailors, and that her freight was scat-
tered from the North Head to Sausalito.

CHAPTEE XIX

SALINAS VALLEY — A BULL AND BBAB FIGHT

In 1865 I moved to the Salinas Valley, in
Monterey County, and here I leased from David
Spence two leagues of land (eight thousand
eight hundred and eighty acres) for a term of
five years, at the annual rental of five hundred
dollars, with the privilege of purchasing the
west half of this ranch for the sum of fifteen
thousand dollars; and here for some years I
engaged in the dairying business, milking fifteen
hundred cows.

That part of the Salinas Valley west of Sa-
linas was then covered with great tall mustard,
while in the easterly direction it was a good
grazing country. There was then a small stage
station consisting of a cabin and bam at the
present site of Salinas.

I had lumber hauled from Watsonville, and
built a residence and out-buildings at the pres-
ent site of the Spreckels Sugar Company's big
factory. In those years there were only two
other buildings between my residence and the
Oak Grove House below Soledad, — one of which
was at the Deep WeU stage station, and the

155

r

156 A California Pioneer

other, a cabin occupied by David Spence on
the river road.

R. T. Buell was then occupying the Buena
Vista Eancbo, across the Salinas River, and
the mountain country there was infested with
bears that proved very destructive to our stock,
and some of our vaqueros proposed to stage an
old-fashioned bull and bear fight. They built
a six-by-eight-foot pen, the floor and all made
of logs about one foot in diameter, with a heavy
plank sliding door held up by a figure 4, hav-
ing a spindle five feet long extending into the
trap. In this pen they tied a young calf, —
which set up a lively bawling for its mother, —
and one of the largest cinnamon bears I have
ever seen walked into the pen, the door closed
behind him, and he was a prisoner. He was
transferred to an iron cage and taken to the
Davis place at the Hilltown crossing of the
Salinas River, where cage and all were placed
in a big corral.

A wild bull was now put into the corral, and
notices stuck up in Oastroville, Monterey, Wat-
sonville, and around the country, announcing
that there would be an old-fashioned buU and
bear fight the following Sunday at twelve
o'clock at the Davis place; and hundreds of
people came.

The bull's horns had been filed until they were
very sharp ; and when everything was in readi-

Salinas VcMey — A Bull cmd Bear Fight 157

ness the vaqueros lassoed and threw the bull
and tied to one of his front feet the end of a
chain about seventy-five feet long, after which
the bear was let out of his cage, lassoed, and
thrown, and the other end of the chain tied to
one of his front feet. This was to prevent
either from running away from the other, and
to insure a fight. But for this chain both ani-
mals were now loose in the big corral. Nor was
there a lack of music, for a white-haired Mexi-
can from Castroville, — sitting astride of a pmto
pony as old as its rider, — ^had brought with hrm
a cracked fiddle, and he started a lively tune,
making that old fiddle fairly squeal.

The betting was two to one in favor of the
bear when the fight started. There was a bam
with a hay loft in it on one side of the corral,
which was open from the eaves to a point about
six feet from the ground, and this was full of
hay and constituted the reserved section, which
was occupied by the women and children, who
laughed and cheered when the bull was getting
the best of it, and who would cry when the bear
was having the advantage.

There were salvos of "Bravo Torol" when
the bull had the best of it, and "Bravo Oso!"
when Bruin had things his way; and the fight
certainly was fierce enough. Finally, when the
bear, standing on his hind legs, got his "arms"
around the bull's neck, and a vicious hold with

158 A California Pioneer

his teeth, the bull, by a mighty effort, got one
of his pointed horns between the bear's ribs,
and tossed him three or four feet into the air,
which finished the fight; for the bear had been
gored in a vital spot, and died in a short tune.

CHAPTER XX

EAELY SALINAS VALLEY POLITICS

I COMPLETED the purcliase of tlie 4,440 acre
tract from Spence (now worth, four hundred
dollars per acre), and subsequently bought
12,000 acres of the San Lorenzo Eancho, in the
southern end of the Salinas Valley; and for
some years prosperity smiled upon all my un-
dertakings.

In 1872 I was honored by being made one of
California's delegates to the National Republi-
can Convention that nominated President Grant
for his second term.

In 1875 I was elected a member of the Cali-
fornia Assembly, and was reelected in 1877.

San Antonio precinct was in the southern
part of the county, and its voting population
was made up largely of native Calif omians, and
it was overwhelmingly Democratic, and as I
did not speak their language I employed Jacob
R. Leese, a member of the well-known pioneer
family of that name, to go with me to that pre-
cinct. A Mexican, whom I shall call Carranza
(that was not his name), was the Democratic
oracle and leader of the San Antonio precinct,

159

160 A Galifomia Pioneer

and I did not intend to waste any time in solic-
iting Carranza's support, for I tliongM it use-
less to do so; but as we were passing Ms resi-
dence, Leese insisted that we should at least call
and shake hands with him. This we did, and
while Carranza was affable enough, I saw no
prospects of enlisting his aid in my fight.
Leese, however, engaged Carranza in a private
conversation in Spanish, and when we were
about to leave, Carranza extended his hand to
me and wished me good luck. I could not un-
derstand why he should wish me good luck, and
when we got out on the road I said to Leese:

"You don't mean to say that Carranza in-
tends to support me at the election."

"Yes," replied Leese; "that's just what he
is going to do."

"Jake," said I, "you have compromised me
in some way, in order to obtain Carranza's sup-
port, and I do not want you to agree that I
shall do anything that can not be done, or that
is not proper for me to do."

Leese replied that if I was elected I would
find out, and if not, I would never know; but
said that there was nothing wrong about it. _

There was no telegraphic communication witl
the San Antonio precinct, and the returns fron
there were the last to be received, but thej
showed that Carranza had turned things upsid<
down; and I was elected by a majority of sis
votes.

Early Salinas Valley Politics 161

When I first met Leese after my election I
asked him what he had promised Carranza that
I would do if elected, and Leese replied that
Carranza had a son in State's Prison for horse
stealing, and that I was to get him out. I in-
vestigated the facts of the case and became con-
vinced that the stealing of the horse, for which
young Carranza had been sent to jail, was more
of a boyish frolic or escapade than it was really
criminal in design. C. P. Berry was chosen
Speaker, and as I had been his opponent and
we were friendly, I induced him to appoint me
a member of the Committee on State Prisons,
and this committee, >after a full investigation,
recommended to the Governor that young Car-
ranza be pardoned, which recommendation was
approved by the Grovernor, and young Carranza
was liberated.

I am not altogether satisfied whether my con-
nection with this transaction may be said tp
have been altogether commendable, but I do
not think it was "facinorous," and with this I
dismiss it from further consideration.

In 1876, which was, of course, a few years
after the close of the Civil War, politics were
considerably "warmer" than they are in these
days of non-partisanship, and when the Elec-
toral Commission decided that Hayes had been
chosen over Tilden-, the storm broke out, and
Salinas, not to be behind in the procession,
staged the following tragedy.

162 A California Pioneer

There was a very portly gentleman living at
SaUnas at that time, whom I shall call Qmrk
(which was not his name) . He was a Pennsyl-
vania Democrat (asserted by some narrow Ke-
publicans to be a very bad specmien of Demo-
crat), and he waxed very angry over the de-
cision of the Electoral Commission, and loudly
proclaimed that under no circumstances would
Hayes remain seated in the Presidential chair,
and that he, Quirk, proposed to prevent it by
force of arms. He thereupon undertook to or-
ganize a regiment to go back to Washington
and remove Hayes and seat Tilden.

Of course, the organization of this armed
force and the carrying out of this venture re-
quired the consumption of a reasonable quantity
of stimulant, and Quirk started down Mam
Street and entered one barroom after another,
proclaiming his purpose and sohcitmg enlist-
ments. At each place he stopped, one or more
sympathizers would join the colors, and by tje
time Quirk had reached the Abbott House he
had "sharked up a list of landless resolutes
to the number of thirty or forty, who came
noisily trooping at his heels.

In the lobby of the Abbott House near the
stove sat Press Woodside, a lawyer and a
Southern Democrat, and Quirk now addressed
himself to this expected recruit to his force.
After listening patiently to Quirk's vivid ac-
count of the wrongs that were being heaped

Early Salinas Valley/ Politics 163

upon the grand old Democratic party by the
"thieving Black Republicans," and after being
fully advised of Quirk's proposed warlike ad-
vance upon Washington, Woodside replied as
follows :

"Quirk, you certainly will not question my
fealty to the Democratic party nor believe that
I would falter in my support of its time-honored
principles. I fully agree, with you that Tilden
was elected, and that we have been ignomini-
ously robbed of the presidency, yet at my years
I feel little disposed to again take up arms
against the constituted authorities. As you are
aware, I saw several years' service in the late
war, fighting for Dixie, and it was by the merest
chance that my bones are not now bleaching
on the banks of the Chickahominy. In that
great contest I saw amputated legs and arms
piled up like cord wood, and I saw numberless
men shot so full of holes that they 'would not
hold their " vittles. " ' I wish you all success in
your venture, and fortified by your virility and
energy, there can be no such thing as failure;
but so far as I am personally concerned, I de-
sire to say to you that I have given this entire
matter the most respectful and prayerful con-
sideration and reflection, and am now convinced
to my own satisfaction that, whatever political
party is successful, the country will last as long
as I will, and after that it can 'gotohell.' "

CHAPTEE XXI

BUSINESS VENTUEES

No one is very muci. interested in a liard-
Inok story, and I hastily pass over the follow-
ing:

In those halcyon days of yore it was pretty
generally conceded that our great transporta-
tion company had not been incorporated for
charitable purposes, and the farmers of the
Salinas "Valley complained very loudly of the
freight rates charged upon their shipments, and
in response to what appeared to be a very
strong public sentiment I fathered, or promoted,
the organization of the Monterey and Salinas
Valley Eailroad Company, which built a nar-
row-gauge railroad from Salinas to Monterey,
a distance of twenty miles. This enabled the
farmers to ship their grain to tide water, and
resulted in a great saving in freight.

For a short time this little railroad pros-
pered, and then our big competitor, in order to
recover its lost business, made a horizontal re-
duction in its freight charges, whereupon many
of the farmers of the Salinas Valley im-
piediately withdrew their patronage from the

164

Business Ventures 165

little railroad and went back to their ancient
enemy.

In order completely and fnlly to equip this
little railroad, we had to go in debt to the ex-
tent of about $120,000.00, and this withdrawal
of patronage made it inevitable that there would
ultimately be foreclosure proceedings.

I pledged my own credit, and thereby suc-
ceeded in keeping this railroad in operation for
about two years, saving to the shippers of the
Salinas Valley a very considerable amount of
money.

In 1874 I had built the Abbott House, still a
popular hostelry at Salinas, and in 1876-7
Cahfornia experienced the dryest season since
the American occupation, the rainfall in the Sa-
linas Valley being less than five inches.

In 1877-8 there were prospects of an enor-
mous yield, and ia the month of April, when I
returned from the Legislature, I had 6,000 acres
of wheat standing level with the tops of the
fences.; but during one night in June, when the
wheat was in the milk, an unseasonable rain
fell, followed by a bright sunshine the next day,
which brought on rust; and my entire 6,000
acres of wheat did not yield a single sack of
grain.

"Misfortunes come not single spies, but in
battalions," and it now developed that a com-
mission house in San Francisco, to which I had

166 A California Pioneer

been shipping my produce, had appropriated
about $45,000.00 of my money.

The dry year, followed by the rusty year,
necessarily caused a shrinkage in the value of
real property, and creditors, becoming alarmed
for the safety of their investments, very gen-
erally either demanded additional securities, or
pressed collection of their claims. I was caught
in the general cataclysm, and although I had
property that in ordinary times was worth a
great deal more than I owed, it was now sacri-
ficed because of the shrinkage in values, and I
was broke, yet undismayed.

I think I may here with propriety mention
two incidents in connection with the Monterey
and Salinas Valley Railroad Company, of which
I was President.

Wishing to avoid the importunities of people
who I knew would be clamoring for free trans-
portation, I procured the board of directors to
pass a resolution forbidding the President is-
suing such transportation.

While this resolution was in force, a Rev. Mr.
McGowan, an Episcopal clergyman then re-
siding at Salinas, supported by a large delega-
tion of the women of the congregation, solicited
from me a pass from Salinas to Monterey and
return, and while I was desirous of advancing
religious affairs, at least to the small extent
that would be accomplished by the issuance of
free transportation to this gentleman, I was at

Business Ventures 167

a loss for a method of getting around the resolu-
tion ahove referred to.

It occurred to me that if the Rev. Mr. Mo-
Gowan could by some means be classed as an
employee of the company, the way would be
open for my complying with his resquest, and
after a little reflection it occurred to me that
above all things else our little railroad needed
a chaplain, whereupon I had the secretary enter
upon his jjooks an order appointing the Rev.
Mr. McGowan as chaplain of the Monterey and
Salinas Valley Railroad Company, and I then
handed him his pass.

I here mention the dirtiest political trick
with which I was ever connected. There was to
be a Democratic rally at the old town of Monte-
rey, which was to be addressed by some celeb-
rity from San Francisco, and the chairman of
the Democratic Central Committee came to me
and asked me what the lowest rate would be
for running an excurison on the night of this
meeting. I told him that it was not a ques-
tion of rates, that I was going to run a free
train on that night.

I then telegraphed to the Republican State
Central Committee to send the best speaker
they had to Salinas for the same night the
meeting was to be held in Monterey, and I then
set some men at work putting temporary sides
on a train of forty flat cars, and placed benches
to seat the passengers. On the day the speak-

168 A California Pioneer

ing was to take place I liad notices posted an-
nouncing a free excursion from Monterey to
Salinas ; and practically the entire population
of Monterey came over to onr Bepublican meet-
ing at Salinas, wMle the Democratic orator and
a few of his friends, who refused to desert him,
remained at the old capital.

Conditions at that time were not what they
are now, and then pretty nearly anything, ex-
cept scuttling a ship or cutting a throat, was
considered perfectly proper in matters political ;
yet, at the same time, as I look back upon this
incident, I do not think it very creditable, and
make this confession to show that I am re-
pentant.

CHAPTER XXn

IN AEIZONA

In tlie latter part of 1879 I moved to Arizona,
in an effort to recoup my fortune. I located at
Tombstone, and engaged in tlie milk business,
■with fair success ; and I mention the following
circumstance merely to illustrate the ingenuity
of the paleface in his pursuit of the nimble
shilling.

I was supplying six cans of milk a day to one
big hotel, and three cans a day to another; but
the same amount was being furnished by a com-
petitor. The landlord of one of these hotels
complained of my milk's souring. He was
about to stop the supply, but I induced him not
to do so until I had an opportunity to find out
what caused my milk to sour, — I agreeing to
continue furnishing the milk free of charge un-
til the difficulty should be located. I hired a
man to act as a detective, and he quickly caught
the second cook squeezing a pickle into the cans
of milk I had delivered at the hotel. My com-
petitor had paid the second cook ten dollars
for this service. The landlord immediately
discharged this cook and also stopped the sup-

169

170 A Calif orma Pioneer

ply from my competitor, giving all the busi-
ness to me, wMcli was not so bad after all.

Geronimo, the Apache chief, was now again
on a raid. He was on the Mexican side in the
Sierra Madre Mountains, with about three
hundred warriors, and was occasionally sending
parties of from twenty to thirty of his men
back to the reservation to get supphes that his
friends would collect, and to steal stock and
commit murder and torture the palefaces on the
way. I could mention many of his outrages,
but will refer to but one. .

His men had made a raid into New Mexico
just east of the Arizona line, and three vaqueros
riding the range, looking after stock, came m
sight of a house at the edge of the timber.
There was no smoke from the chimney ,~ and
there was no person in sight, but as they saw a
number of cattle at the water troughs, they con-
cluded that the troughs were probably empty,
for otherwise the cattle would not gather there
at that time of day, so they rode up to investi-
gate They found several children lying dead
around a wagon. Their heads had been
smashed against the hubs of the wheels. Upon
entering the house, they found the father and
mother dead, and as one of the party happened
to be acquainted with the family, he exclaimed :
"For God's sake, where is Maud [a girl of
nineteen]? I wonder if they took her with
them."

In Arizona 171

The house was thoroughly searched, and then
the back yard, and here they found Maud, still
alive but unconscious, her feet and hands tied,
hanging to a meat hook that had been driven
into a tree, and the point thrust through the
back of her neck. She was quickly taken down,
and one of the vaqueros started for a doctor
twenty-five miles away, while the other two did
what they could to revive her. But she was
dead when the doctor arrived.

CHAPTER XXni

AN AWFTTL JOtJENEY, AND A FOOL BARGAIN

The Government had advertised for bids to
furnish beef cattle (about 4,000 head, more or
less), to supply the San Carlos Indian Reserva-
tion for the ensuing year. Two other men and
I prepared a bid, but when our papers were
ready we ascertained that it was too late to get
them to San Carlos by mail in time for the
opening of bids, and the only alternative was to
carry our bid there on horseback. In order to
do this it would be necessary to go through the
Dragoon Mountains and the Pass north of the
Graham Mountains, where, ten days before, a
Government pack train had been robbed and
six men killed. My partners said they would

not make the trip for "all the d cattle in

Arizona," so I determined to go myself.

I was well on my way before daylight the
next morning, expecting to reach Fort Thomas
on the Gila, seventy-five miles away, that night,
and thought that by starting at three o'clock
thfe next morning I would be able to reach San
Carlos by noon, at which time the bids were to
be opened. I traveled along the west foot of

172

An Awful Journey, and a Fool Bar gam 173

the Dragoons, and around the north end into
the Sulphur Spring Valley, taking care when-
ever I sighted a clump of brush on the line of
my trail to give it a wide berth, but I was now
in an open plain where I could see for miles in
all directions. The Sulphur Spring Valley is
about one hundred miles long and about twenty-
five miles wide, the south end of it being in
Mexico, and the north end, where I was travel-
ing, being completely surrounded by mountains.

On reaching a point about five miles from
the end of the valley where the road turns ab-
ruptly east to the Pass heretofore mentioned, I
met a stockman who lived in the northwestern
part of the valley, who informed me that, by
going through a certain box canyon I would
save at least twelve miles' distance. Carr Ab-
bott fashion, I took this short route. At the
start the canyon was about sixty yards wide
with high bluffs on each side, and a mile farther
was from sixteen feet to sixty yards wide with
perpendicular walls from 2,000 to 3,000 feet
high. There was a small stream of water
through this canyon three to four inches deep
as it passed over the sand bars, but there were
many deep pools where the water covered my
saddle. The trail in many places was indis-
tinct and overgrown with briers and berries,
and my progress was very slow.

Night overtook me, and in looking up I could
see only the stars, while, looking downward,

174 A Califorma Pioneer

I could not even see my horse. I rode into
one of these deep pools where the water cov-
ered the saddle, and with a stick that I had cut
for that purpose, was able to make my way to
a point where the water was but two feet deep,
by means of keeping one end of this stick on
the bank.

I was finally able to crawl off onto a low
bank, and after several trials got my horse up
also. Here was a comparatively level patch
of sediment land, about forty feet wide and one
hundred feet long, overgrown with blackberry
bushes. After some difficulty I succeeded in col-
lecting a lot of dry sycamore limbs and got a
fire started. My horse was looking at me with
wonder in his eyes. I removed the saddle and
spread the blanket over him, and told him to
help himself to blackberries, as it was all either
of us would have for supper. Then I took off
my clothes and hung them before the fire. The
owls that were nesting on little shelves of the
overhanging rooks above me were shouting
"Who, who?"

' ' Who, who ! " I replied. "If you knew half
as much as an owl is supposed to know, you
would know that there was not a man in Ari-
zona except Carr Abbott who would be fool
enough to be caught in such a hole as this."

Nevertheless they were not satisfied with this
answer and kept putting the question all
through the long night. When my clothes got

An Awful Journey, and a Pool Bargain 175

dry I dressed, and sat down and leaned against
a sycamore stump. Having notMng else to do,
I tried to figure out how long it must have heen
since Sulphur Spring Valley was a lake, and its
outlet a big river wending its way to the sea,
3,000 feet above my head ; but I became so con-
fused in the mass of figures as they multiplied
that I fell asleep, and when I awoke the stars
had gone and "Old Sol" was shining on the
top of the cliff.

I started on my journey, and in about a mile
came to the open country, a fertile little valley
about two miles wide and about three mUes
long, at least one-half of which was covered
with blackberry bushes, clumps of sycamore
and willow, the open glades well grassed. I
was riding across one of these grassy spots,
and my trail turned abruptly to the left into a
belt of tall blackberry bushes, and there not
more than thirty yards distant I saw seven
black heads, that I supposed belonged to Ger-
onimo Apaches; and as it was now up to me
either to return through that infernal canyon
or fight, I determined to try a bluff. So I lev-
eled my rifle on them and yelled to them to
throw up their hands ; and up went seven pair
of hands accompanied by the exclamation :
"Good Indian me, me Escamarine Indian."
I told them to come up where I was in the
open and to keep their hands up; which they
did. There were three men, two squaws and

176 A California Pioneer

two girls, one about twelve years of age, and
the other about sixteen or seventeen. Escama-
rine had been an Apache chief, but because of
his friendship for the whites, he had been de-
posed in favor of Geronimo, and the Govern-
ment had given him this little valley, to which
he had moved with his cousins, his uncles, and
his aunts, and quite a number of friends, who
knew there was no use to fight the whites. The
men begged for tobacco, and I gave them all
I had.

One of the squaws (the mother of the girls)
took a fancy to my horse, and she wanted me
to go to their village to see her ponies, offering
me in exchange two of them for my horse; but
I told her I must reach San Carlos before noon,
and then by way of complimenting the oldest
girl I offered to give my horse for her.

But, quick as a flash, I realized that I had
made a grave mistake, as Indians know nothing
about compliments and never engage in jok-
ing, and where a man offers to buy a girl, they
believe he wants her, whereupon the only thing
to settle is the price to be paid. The mother
replied :

"Oh, no, that girl heap good girl, heap catch
um fish, heap work in garden, that girl worth
ten ponies."

I told them I was in a hurry, and bid them
good-by; but as I turned my horse to the trail
I caught sight of that girl's face, and never

An Awful Journey, and a Fool Bargain 177

before did I see so much wrath and scorn in a
human countenance ; for the idea that she was
not worth ten ponies was unbearable. As the
whole crowd now looked mad, and I seemed to
be in for a row with these friendly Indians, I
was in a quandary, and did not know what to
do or say. At length, believing that it was not
likely I would see them again, and as it was
also probable that this girl's heart would not
thereby be broken, and as I was closely sur-
rounded on all sides, I asked the mother how
old the girl was. She replied that the last notch
on her age rod was seventeen, and in two
months more there would be another notch.

"All right," I said, "in two weeks I will
come with the ponies."

At these words the girl's face fairly beamed,
and she asked me where my wigwam was, to
which I replied that it was just across the moun-
tains in the big valley (a lie of course).

"Aw," she said, "there is a trail over the
mountain, and I can go from your wigwam to
the Escamarine village in four hours and carry
a papoose, and when you come with the ponies
come that way, because Geronimo Indians are
sometimes in the Black Canyon, and they kill
you and take the ponies."

"All right," I said; "good-by."

This girl was a beauty. She was without
paint or whitewash, above medium height,
weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds,

178 A California Pioneer

and her hair, whicli was cut in front ahout half
an inch above the eyebrows, fell to her waist at
the back. She had round features, a mouth
like a slit in a Lodi watermelon, and was ele-
gantly attired in raw-hide sandals and a white
man's overshirt. I never saw her afterward,
but I heard from her, as I will hereafter relate.
I reached San Carlos at half past eleven in
the morning, but as our bid was not the lowest
we did not get the contract.

On my return I did not go by the Escama-
rine village, but, giving it a wide berth, went up
the Gila to Fort Thomas, and through the Pass
north of the Graham Mountains, where the Gov-
ernment train, to which I have heretofore re-
ferred, had been destroyed. There was at least
an acre that was white with flour, sugar, rice,
and so on, while the Indians on the Eeservation
were grumbling and growling because their ra-
tions were shortened by this pillage.

A few hours later I met an Indian, and I
stopped and prepared for business ; but he took
a paper out of his pocket, waved it, and kept
coming. When he reached me he handed the
paper to me. It stated that he was a friendly
Indian, in the employ of the Government, that
he should be allowed to pass, and it was signed
by the commander at Fort Thomas.

CHAPTER XXIV

I SPENT the last night of this trip in a little
mining town on the eastern side of Sulphur
Spring Valley called Dos Cabezos (Two
Heads), so named from two lofty peaks just
back of the town. About three hundred miners
lived here together, as a protection against
raids of the Indians.

There was a large adobe hotel at this place
having a barroom about eighteen by twenty-
four feet, near the center of which was a great
box stove with an iron railing around it. In
the evening after supper this big barroom was
filled with miners, and they began telling In-
dian stories, the story-telling being started by
a blacksmith who had had one heel amputated,
because of a bullet that had been shot into it by
an Apache.

He told about having been driving along the
road with his partner and being ambushed by
the Indians, who were concealed in me^quite
brush on higher ground at their left. The
horses of the blacksmith and his partner were
killed by the Indians, and were then used as

179

180 A California Pioneer

breastworks while the Indians were fought back,
and in retreating down the road on the run, the
bullet had struck the blacksmith's heel. The
blacksmith and his partner reached a small
knob, close up to the mountain, which was cov-
ered with big bowlders, and they hastily built
a pen of these and got inside, while the In-
dians surrounded them and remained just out
of gunshot. After it got dark the partner had
crawled through the ring of Indians and
reached the village about six miles away, re-
turning at the break of day with about seventy-
five men. Several of the Indians were killed,
and the blacksmith and his partner had killed
three of them in the skirmish the day before.
This story was followed by others, which grew
in size until none were believed.

An elderly man, called "Uncle Ben," sat near
the stove with his feet on the railing, smoking
a corncob pipe; and as he had been in that
country before the American occupation, he
was asked several times to tell of his experi-
ences with the Indians. To this request he al-
ways replied that he had never had any scraps
with the Indians worth telling; but the crowd
was insistent, so finally Uncle Ben related the
following story.

Once he and four other men were on a pros-
pecting trip in the Dragoon Mountains, and they
were going up a canyon across a little flat, about
sixty feet wide. In the rainy season a small

Uncle Ben's Escape 181

stream ran down tMs canyon, but at the time
to wMch he was referring the bed of the stream
was dry sand and gravel, and about ten feet
below the flat. On both sides the mountains
were very steep, and well covered with timber.
Without warning, he said, "there came a storm
of arrows from our front, and there were so
many of them we thought it best to retreat,
but on turning back we discovered more In-
dians behind us than there were in front, and
behind the trees in all directions black heads
would appear, and 'zip' came the arrows. We
got behind trees and rocks ourselves, and fired
until our ammunition was exhausted, th6n got
down on the sandy bed of the creek and, using
our rifles as war-clubs, fought these black devils
with desperation, ' '

Proceeding, he told of the death of each of
his companions, describing them separately and
winding up with poor old Bill Jones, his part-
ner, who got locked with a big Indian, and over
and down they went, with Bill on top ; but three
or four hatchets quickly cut him to pieces.

"At that moment," said Uncle Ben, "I was
striking an Indian over his head with my war-
club, when another one made a lunge at me with
his one-tined spear, which hit me in my left
shoulder just under the collarbone, and came
out of my back. I hit my heels against the brute
I had brained with a blow from my war-club,
and went over on my back. Half a dozen of

182 A California Pioneer

these black devils then pounced upon me and
stretched my hands and feet out and ran their
spears down through them into the sand."

By this time Uncle Ben's pipe had gone out,
and he scratched match after match, until he
finally got it going again. All the while there
was perfect silence, for everybody was waiting
for the finish of the yarn. Yet none came.
Uncle Ben just smoked and smoked. At length
some one sitting behind him said :

"Well, Uncle Ben, how did you get away?"
Uncle Ben turned to him and answered :

"Young man, you must have gone crazy. I
did not get away — the killed me. ' '

CHAPTER XXV

AN APACHE WAR DANCE

I MADE a trip to the valley of tlie Little Col-
orado in tlie early 80 's, for the purpose of buy-
ing stock cattle for my Sulphur Spring Valley
ranch. It was a journey of two hundred miles,
and Geronimo was again in the Sierra Madre
Mountains, while his scouts were on the route
between that point and San Carlos, stealing and
murdering.

I traveled from Tombstone to the Sulphur
Spring Valley on the road that passes between
the Dragoon Mountains and the Whetstone
Mountains, — as that pass was three miles broad
and mostly clear of brush,— reaching the
Hooker ranch, opposite Fort Grant, where I
spent the night.

The next day I reached Fort Thomas, at the
Gila. San Carlos is down the river about forty
miles from Fort Thomas in a northwesterly
direction, and the land along the river at this
point is level and fertile, and about a mile and
a half wide, — the road running along the south-
em edge of the level land, close to a range of
bluffs about sixty feet high.

183

184 A California Pioneer

On going down tMs road the next day, wlien
about ten miles from San Carlos I came to an
old river channel, about one hundred feet wide
and twenty feet deep, the banks of which were
worn down so that one could ride in and out
at any point, as far as I could see. Great syca-
more and Cottonwood trees along this channel
shut off a view of the country beyond, but upon
reaching this channel I heard the strajigest
noise I had ever heard. I stopped and lis-
tened, then I concluded to ride across the chan-
nel and see what caused this sound. And let
me observe just here that this is not the first
time a man has got himself into trouble by
sticking his nose into other men's business; for,
upon reaching the level land beyond the chan-
nel, I found myself within thirty yards of an
Indian war dance.

Two logs, about two and a half feet apart,
held between them a fire, which had been weU
burned down, and scraps of iron, wagon-tires,
and axles had been laid across these logs, on
top of which the carcass of a mule was being
roasted, and there were about forty men, with
alternate stripes of red and black in perpendicu-
lar lines on their faces, marching around the fire
and chanting, — ^not in unison, for every one
yelled as he pleased, leaping into the air and
brandishing weapons in illustration of how they
would cut the white men's heads off. These
were the recruits for Geronimo's army. Out-

An 'Apache War Bonce 185

side this dance ring was another ring of about
five hundred Indians, — including men, women
and children, — ^wh.o sat on the ground, and just
back of this second ring across from where I
was, two posts had been set in the ground, and
a pole lashed between them, against which rifles
by the dozen were leaning.
' My gaze at this scene lasted but a few sec-
onds, for about twenty of these warriors im-
mediately caught sight of me ; and knowing that,
whether I was a Government scout or a rancher,
I would notify the army officers, they broke for
their rifles. I jerked one line of my bridle
reins and poked my spur into the flank on the
opposite side of my horse. The animal turned
a square corner on his hind feet, and down we
went on a dead run through that old channel.

Upon reaching the road, I leaned forward
and plied the quirt, and was well down the road
when bullets from their rifles began kicking up
the dust not twenty yards behind me. At least
fifteen or twenty of those Indians were stand-
ing in the road opposite the war-dance shooting
at me. Notwithstanding my hurried glance at
the war dance, I had observed a large number
of horses hitched at the edge of the timber along
the old channel where it meandered to the north,
and I feared trouble from that quarter; so I
kept my eyes in that direction, and very soon at
kast twenty-five of these Indians were on their
horses, giving chase. They must have known

186 A California Pioneer

that unless I was overtaken I would report
what I had seen to the army officers, and as a
result every one of these recruits would be
killed before they reached the Mexican line;
because every military post on the way would
be watching for them.

I was not alarmed at the Indians on horse-
back, for they were now north, — a mile away.
My horse weighed about 1,100 pounds, was
only five years old and fast, and, while I kept
up a lively lope, I saved his wind for the last
lap.

When the Indians came out of the timber they
were in a bunch, but by the time we had run a
mile, all but four of them had given up the
chase and stopped. These four, however, were
getting a little too close. I now let my horse
out at his top speed, and had no difficulty in
leaving them, because their horses had run at
top speed from the start, and at least a half-
mile of that run had been on rough ground
before they reached the road; so they now aU
gave up the chase.

It was five miles now to San Carlos, which I
reached in safety; but my horse was still white
with foam. Here I found what you might call
a corral of about two acres fenced in with an
adobe wall, four feet thick and sixteen feet high.
The Government buildings were inside, while a
door twenty inches wide afforded the only en-
trance. Upon informing the guard at the door

An Apache War Dance 187

that I wanted to see the commander, lie replied :

"Oh, another soared rancher. He will not
see yon."

I asked the guard to inform the commander
that I had a letter to be shown at any of the
military posts, entitling me to pass on my way.
He did this, and this gained me admission.

The General, a fine-looking man with iron
gray hair, was sitting at his desk, and looking
up with a smile, said :

"I suppose you have seen a band of burros
in the mirage and thought they were Indians;
the ranchers keep us sending soldiers out on
some such bugaboo stories."

I simply handed him the letter, and upon ob-
serving that it was from Hooker of Sulphur
Spring Valley, he remarked that he was an old
friend of his, and he asked me what I had to re-
port. I then told him what I have just related.

Without a word to me, he turned to his tele-
graph operator and dictated a telegram to the
commander at Fort Grant, ordering him to
watch the Pass north of the Graham Moun-
tains, and another to the commander at Fort
Thomas to watch the river bottom and the
rolling hills to the north.

The General was very angry, and striking
his desk with his fist, declared that his scouts,
whose duty it was to watch that section of the
country, had probably been asleep in the shade.

188 A Galiforma Pioneer

and lie would see tliat they were given some
shade in the guard house.

As darkness came, the commander at Fort
Thomas sent out a hundred soldiers, fifty of
whom went into the hills to the north, and fifty
to the river bottom. This fertile river bottom
was covered with tall blade grass, weeds and
mesquite brush from three to four feet high,
and there was a broad trail through it, which
two scouts were sent down the river to watch,
and when they heard the Indians coming they
returned and reported, whereupon the fifty men
concealed themselves in the weeds about ten
feet from the trail, and when the Indians came
along, these soldiers sprang to their feet and
killed them all, with the exception of one who
was at the rear and out of reach of the bullets.

CHAPTER XXVI

SEEING THE OOTTNTET

Theee was a good military wagon road from
San Carlos to Fort Apache and Verde in the
White Mountains, but at Globe City, thirty-
five miles to the north, there was a man I
wanted to see, and I went there expecting to
return to San Carlos ; but I did not.

Here I made the acquaintance of some butch-
ers, two of whom were going on a cattle-
bujdng expedition, and as I was looking for
stock cattle, we concluded to travel together
by a trail that would save about thirty-five
miles, instead of going back out of our way to
get to the wagon road. The trail from Globe
City ran nearly east for many miles over a
rough country, with narrow grassy mesas and
deep brushy canyons, to the foot of a high
mountain lying west of the Black River, which
stream ran nearly north at that point. Upon
reaching the summit of this mountain we came
to an Indian "book" which must have been
hundreds of years old, for it was now thirty
feet in diameter and nearly five feet high in
the center. These ' ' books ' ' are found at promi-

189

190 A California Pioneer

nent points along Indian trails, and if a pass-
ing Indian wants to let Ms friends know when
lie passed, when he will return, or, — ^in war
time, — if he has seen the enemy, he secures a
lot of little sticks, or heavy spears of grass,
and places them on this "book" ia such a man-
ner as to be intelligible to the others ; then he
places little stones about the size of a walnut,
or a hen's egg, upon these sticks, or spears of
grass, to keep them from being displaced by
the wind; and, as generations pass, the "book"
continues to grow.

The eastern slope of the mountain was very
steep, heavily timbered, and the trail zigzagged
through rough canyons. We therefore did not
reach the river until after sundown, and here
we went into camp.

The next morning we had to cross the river,
which on our side had a long sandy beach, the
depth of the water increasing gradually, while
the bank on the other side was perpendicular
and about ten feet high, with a place cut down
to the water's edge, of sufficient width for
a horseman to pass. About seventy-five yards
below this "outcome," on the other side, was
a fall of at least one foot in three, filled with
bowlders from ten to twenty feet in diameter,
around which the water swirled in milky foam
that sparkled in the sunlight.

We started into the river well above the out-
come, — ^my companions in the lead, — and when

Seemg the Cowntry 191

about twenty-five yards from the outcome the
bottom fell out, and while my companions got
through all right, my horse went down like a
rock, taking me with him. When we came to
the surface I slipped off his back and caught
hold of his tail, and got him headed for the
east bank. Along this bank there was a belt of
willows which came close to the edge of the
water, and while my horse got his front feet
in among these willows, the water was so deep
that his hind feet did not touch the bottom, and
there he stood up as straight as a man. I
caught hold of the horn of the saddle with one
hand and the willows with the other, and took a
rest; and I was now surprised to see that we
were only about sixty feet above a cataract.
My companions came with their picket ropes,
which they tied together, and they then put a
loop over my horse's head, fixing it so that it
would not choke him. Then, as I pushed my
horse away from the bank, my companions
pulled both horse and me through the deep
water, I clinging to the pommel of the saddle,
and we were finally landed safely at the out-
come.

After drying my clothes and reloading my
rifle and pistol, we started on up the stream.
My companions had had a little drawing made
by a man who had been over the trail, but he
had failed to delineate a small stream that en-
tered the Black Eiver, about five miles above

192 A Calif orma Pioneer

this crossing, and by mistake we followed this
small stream.

On onr right, to the south, there was a high
ridge heavily timbered, which was fairly alive
with wild turkeys, while on our left were low
rolling hUls heavily grassed. The stream up
which we were traveling kept getting smaller,
and we began to think our drawing must be
wrong, but we continued on, and shortly after
sundown came to the head of this stream, which
was in a broad flat of about one hundred acres.

At the upper end of this flat we observed
some smoke, and we immediately concluded that
it was an Apache camp fire. But by slipping
around on the north side of the flat and taking
observations, we discovered no Indians in sight;
and we then ascertained that, while it was an
Indian fire, it had been recently deserted.
There were two green poles about five inches
apart, with a smoldering fire between them, and
a row of rocks about six inches in diameter,
hot and ready for use. The Indians make
water-tight baskets, into which they put their
food to cook, — ^whether it be beef, turkeys, or
manzanita berries and grasshoppers. Into the
basket they then put a hot rock, and when the
heat gets low they put this rock back over the
fire and replace it with a hot one. We had a
very light supper, as we had expected by this
time to reach Fort Apache, and after picketing
our horses two of our company slept while the

Seeing the Cotmtry 193

third watched, taking turns. But we were not
disturbed.

The next day we reached Fort Apache, where
I handed my letter to the commander, and told
him of the business of myself and companions.
He gave us necessary directions and said that
it would be perfectly safe to where we were go-
ing, but that on our way back we should not
fail to call on him, as it might not then be safe
to travel south.

The next day we crossed the White Moun-
tains. It was the second day of May, and the
snow was ten feet deep at the summit. On the
northern slopes at that point the timber con-
sisted of poplar, ash and tamarack, the alti-
tude being too high for pine or oak, while on
the eastern slope toward the valley there were
long, smooth spurs, with grass on the south and
timber on the north. The valley is about eighty
miles long and forty-five miles wide, and the
soil from the foot of the mountain to the little
Colorado River is thin and gravelly and grow-
ing short gramma grass fit only for sheep pas-
ture. It is sparsely inhabited by a population
of which nine-tenths are Mormons, and ten-
tenths as poor as the soil.

We reached St. Johns, the county seat of
Apache County, at sundown. St. Johns was
composed exclusively of adobe buildings, —
some of them covered with earth, and others
with shingles, and at that time boasted a popu-

194 A California Pioneer

lation of about 1,200. At each ranch there were
several houses, in each of which was a wife
with a flock of babies, and all getting ready for
the war to maintain polygamy.

The next morning my compamons and i
started,— they going to the northeast while I
went to the northwestern part of the valley, i
went to the foot of a high ridge (a spur of the
"White Mountains), from which elevation I could
see the entire valley, which appeared to be
surrounded by mountains ; and I wondered how
the river got out. The owner of the ranch at
this point was a Mormon,— who had four
houses, four wives, and children enough to make
a full company, officers and all, in case of war,—
and he informed me that there was a box can-
yon, only a mile away, through which the water
passed to the main Colorado River, thirty-five
miles away. I wanted to go up and see this
canyon, but he told me it was dangerous to go
near it, as a little slide of earth might come and
carry me down three or four thousand feet, and
that he had been compelled to build a fence to
keep his cattle from falling in when they were
grazing in that part of the country. I was
eager, however, to go, and he pointed out the

^Upon arriving at the fence he had referred
to I tied one end of my picket rope around one
of my ankles, and then carried the other end
around one of the fence posts, and, holding the

Seeing the Cov/ntry 195

rope in my hands, crawled towards the edge of
the abyss, paying out the rope as I went. I
could make but a poor guess as to the distance
to the bottom, but I presume this Mormon was
correct. The roar of the water, as it leaped
• over perpendicular falls and impinged against
huge bowlders, was deafening. I carefully
crawled back to the fence, keeping the rope
taut as I went, and, as it was now noon, I sat
down under a big oak. While eating my lunch
I endeavored to figure out how the Powers that
Be had made such a country as this, and my
conclusion was this:

Away back in the dim twilight of the past, the
Colorado ran along the surface of the country,
and this valley constituted a lake about one
hundred miles long and sixty miles wide, cov-
ering the high benches. Then a large river had
passed over this saddle in the mountain and
joined the Colorado River, and as that stream
cut its way down into the bedrock formation,
its tributaries did the same. During the centur-
ies that this lake was in existence, little
streams, pouring into it from all sides, car-
ried decayed vegetation and silt till there prob-
ably must have been a deposit twenty-five feet
in depth at the bottom. But, as the Little Col-
orado cut its way toward bedrock to meet simi-
lar action on the part of the large river, the
lake had been drained, and as every raindrop
moved a particle of this fertile deposit toward

196 !^ California Pioneer

tlie center, it had all been carried away to the
Gulf of California, leaving nothing but the poor
gravelly soil, now tilled by the Mormons. It
was easy to believe that this must have taken
untold thousands of years, for a huge job was
involved, and all those little streams,^ as they
came down from the mountains on all sides, had
cut channels across the mesas in solid bedrock,
from the foot of the mountain to the river, and
from two hundred to four hundred feet deep.

I reached my hotel at eight o'clock that eve-
ning, and here again joined my former com-
panions, and the next day we traveled to the
southeastern part of the valley. We came to
a canyon, which for a distance of twelve miles
was approximately four hundred feet deep, and
at one place as this canyon had been worn down,
and at a point about two hundred feet from the
upper surface, there was a stratum of soft rock
about twenty feet thick, in which we found a
cave about twenty feet high, two hundred feet
deep and three-quarters of a mile long. It
seemed probable that a jam of logs or other
construction had blocked the far end of the
cave, and the water had then been turned back
into its old channel, and had worn its way down
two hundred feet more to the present bottom
of the canyon.

About twenty feet back from the front, there
was a wall four feet thick, composed of slate
rock, each piece of which was not too large for

Seeing the Cowntry 197

a man to handle, and there was no ledge of
slate rock nearer than twelve miles from this
cave. This wall extended the entire length of
the front of the cave (three-quarters of a mile),
and every hundred feet there was an entrance
four feet wide and four feet high, arched over
at the top. Having no lanterns and no shields
to protect our faces from being struck by the
swarm of bats flying about this cave, we did not
enter to investigate ; but as I stood contemplat-
ing this former abode of man I reflected that
millions of years ago inhabitants of just such
caves as this built canals which, though they
can now be followed with difficulty, are distinct
enough to show that the grades were as perfect
as they could be made by the engineers of the
present day. The tooth of time has mutilated
or destroyed most of those things that exhibit
the skill and resources of the Cliff Dwellers, but
enough remains to prove that the present day
has no monopoly upon either human ingenuity
or intelligence, for these ancient artisans
planned and built, cultivated the soil, and loved,
hated, and fought precisely as we do.

At a settlement, in an extension of the main
valley, we mentioned this big cave to a gentle-
man, and he informed us concerning its interior.
He told us that midway between the entrances
in the front wall there were walls two feet thick
extending to the back end of the cave, and that
each one of these walls or partitions had a door

198 A California Pioneer

in it, or an entrance similar to the ones in tlie
front wall; that in the lapse of centuries the
accumulations of the droppings from the bats
was a foot deep on the floors, and that m each
of the separate compartments there was a
mound about a foot above the level, which,
when opened, was found to contain coal ashes,
stones axes, and hammers, pottery, arrow-
heads, and petrified human bones.

We attended a dance at this settlement the
night we were there. It was held in an adobe
building about sixty feet long and about twenty
feet wide, with a partition in the center, the
floor being made of puncheon (boards four teet
long,— split instead of being sawed). Not hav-
ing been yet introduced to any of the ladies, 1
had not joined in the dance, and gave this as a
reason when asked by one of the promoters why
I had not danced. He informed me that it was
not customary there to introduce anybody, but
iust to get your eye on some lady and ask her
to dance, and it would be all right. I told hmi
I did not have sufficient ' ' cheek" to do this. He
asked me who I cared to dance with, and I an-
swered: „ .,
"That brunette near the farther end ot tne

row."

' ' Brunette ? brunette r ' he repeated. ' ' There
is no lady here by that name."

Then I pointed at the lady with long black
curls, and we were introduced and danced to-

Seemg the Cowntry 199

gether. She wore a cheap Dolly Varden, with
print flowers as large as a man's hand while
about her neck was a red ribbon, on which was
suspended a looking-glass about the size of a
half-dollar, and as she wore men's brogan shoes
it is needless to say that we made the puncheon
rattle.

CHAPTER XXVII

PBESENTIMENTS

The following day I went back to Fort
Apache, on my way to Tombstone, and here I
called on the General to inquire whether it
would be safe for me to travel south. He re-
plied that he considered it safe as far as Camp
Cramer on Ash Creek plain, and he gave me
a letter to Captain Cramer, telling him to di-
rect me, if it were safe to travel, and if not,
to hold me there until it was.

It was forty miles to Camp Cramer, but there
was a good military wagon road, with a light
grade for five miles through heavy timber to a
high undulating grassy mesa which extended
for many miles. Approaching the Ash Creek
plains, I went down a long canyon, through
which trickled a small stream of water, that
ultimately passed through Camp Cramer at the
northern edge of the plain, which is about forty
mUes long and ten miles wide, and which is lo-
cated at the head waters of the San Carlos
Eiver.

Camp Cramer is an ideal place for a camp,
and as you approach it, it very much resembles

200

Presentiments 201

an old orcliard; but the trees are white oak,
about two feet in diameter and twenty to fifty
feet apart, with no underbrush. The little
stream running through it sinks in the plain, ex-
cept in the winter season, when there is suf-
ficient rainfall to carry the water to the San
Carlos River. The plain is well grassed and
has high mountains on both sides, with numer-
ous springs at their feet. I presented my letter
to Captain Cramer, and after reading it care-
fully, he arranged for me to remain there over-
night, telling me not to leave in the morning
without seeing him.

The next morning I called on him and again
asked him if he thought it safe for me to pur-
sue my journey. He replied that "no news was
good news," and he had not heard from his
scouts in the mountains, who could look across
the plain into the canyons on the opposite side.
He told me it was forty miles to San Carlos in
a southwesterly direction, and then it would be
forty miles up the Gila in a southeasterly di-
rection, to Fort Thomas. The latter place,
however, he informed me, was less than forty
miles from Camp Cramer, and that, by going by
the trail over the mountain, half of the distance
could be saved. He also said that the trail
across the plain was not very distinct, and that
I might lose it, but that I would pick it up on
the east side of "that knob with timber on it"
(pointing diagonally across the plain), which

202 A California Pioneer

was eighteen or nineteen miles away. He
added that when I got there, I should go around
the knob to the west, and there I would find
Antelope Spring, with plenty of grass for my
horse to graze on while I ate my lunch.

I reached this spring just before noon, and as
I was not hungry I concluded to lie down and
take a rest and to allow my horse to graze for a
little while,' and then to eat my lunch on the
way and drink from my canteen. I gave the
horse the length of the picket rope and lay
down, but I had a presentiment of danger, and
was impressed with the idea that I should not
remain there. Because of this knob, I could
not see along the foothills to the east; but I
climbed to the top, and there were no Indians
in sight. After doing this I climbed another
spur that came down into the plain just be-
low the spring, and there were no Indians to
be seen there. I then returned to the spring
and again lay down, but I could not dismiss the
idea that danger was near; so I filled my can-
teen, mounted my horse, and was away on the
lope.

After going about half a mile I met two
niiners,^both young men from Michigan, — on
horseback, with two mules packed with a regu-
lar miner's outfit, grub, and tools. They in-
quired of me the distance to Camp Cramer,
and also asked if there was any water on the
way, saying that, in coming up the steep south

Presewtiments 203

side of the mountains, it had been terrible hot,
that their stock wanted water, that their can-
teens were empty and they very thirsty. Still
oppressed with the idea of danger at Antelope
Spring, I told them that there was no water
along the trail, but that they could get water
at Camp Cramer; whereupon they asked me if
I could not spare them a drink out of my can-
teen. I handed my canteen to them, asking
them to leave just enough for a drink when I
reached the top of the mountain. Upon putting
the canteen to his lips the first one took a good
look at me and said :

' ' This water did not come from Camp Cramer
this hot day, for it is cold, and the can is full;
what is the reason you do not tell us where we
can get water?"

The fact is that I was fearful of danger at
Antelope Spring, and knowing that these men
would stop there if I informed them where it
was, I had determined to deceive them. I now
said to them that it was for their sake that I
had not infornied them about the spring, but I
finally told them that, if they would do as I
directed, I would tell them where the spring
was. To this they agreed. I then told them
why I had left the spring, and as I had antici-
pated, they had a good laugh over it, calling me
an old fogy. I then directed them to where the
spring was, and cautioned them not to remain
there but to leave as soon as they had watered

204 A Califomia Pioneer

their stock, and to get out at least a mile on
tlie plain, where they could see around them,
and rest and graze their stock there.

We now parted, — ^I going on up the canyon,
and the two men down toward Antelope
Spring, singing, "The Old Oaken Bucket."
The very next day I learned that, within fifteen
minutes after we separated, both of these men
had been shot to death by Indians at Antelope
Spring.

It appears that soon after I left Camp
Cramer a Government scout had reported there
that about forty Apache warriors had been dis-
covered sneaking along the ridge between the
Gila River and the Ash Creek plain, and going
in the direction of Antelope Spring, and this
gang of cutthroats had evidently reached Ante-
lope Spring within a very few minutes after
I had left there.

Some years afterwards, in relating this inci-
dent to a friend of mine, I referred to my eon-
duct as simply extra caution; but he said he
would call it an extraordinary hunch.

CHAPTER XXVin

ABIZONA POLITICS

Living at Tombstone was a certain gentle-
man, whom I will call Brown (that was not his
name), who had heen Police Judge of Tomb-
stone for two years, and an election was at
hand, in which Brown was a candidate to suc-
ceed himself. There was being published at
that time in Tombstone a daily paper called the
Tombstone Clarion, and on the very day before
election it came out vdth a big headliner stating
that Colonel Brown was a patron of the "Bird
Cage," a very notorious and, — as I am reliably
informed, — an exceedingly questionable resort.

Very much like the miner who was struck in
the belly with a sandstone specimen. Colonel
Brown was doubled up like a jackknife by this
editorial blast, and gave up the fight, say-
ing that such an article would kill anybody's
chances, if there were no reply, and that there
was not sufficient time within which to make a
reply.

It happened that that very night a big Re-
publican rally was to be held, and the meeting
was to be addressed by the candidate for Terri-

205

206 A California Pioneer

torial Delegate to Congress as well as the local
candidates for other offices.

Colonel Brown though a Republican candi-
date positively refused to attend this meet-
ing, but about a dozen of his friends went
to his office and practically forced him to put
on his hat and overcoat. Then they hustled
him downstairs and over to the theater and out
on the stage, upon which all of the candidates
for office, to be voted for the next day, were
seated. After all the other candidates had
finished their speeches, there were loud and
persistent calls from all parts of the audience
for Colonel Brown, and they were kept up and
increased in violence, until they could not be
ignored; whereupon the Colonel stepped before
the footlights.

He was very tall, a little stooped, and had a
head as bare as a doorknob. After walking
nervously back and forth across the front of
the stage two or three times, running his fingers
over his bald head, as if in search for a stray
hair, he began :

' ' Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I am
not here for the purpose of charging that my
distinguished opponent for the office of Police
Judge is the butt-cut of original sin, nor that
he is a dirty, mangy, lousy dog, and a disgrace
to his own fleas, nor do I assert that he is a
squint-eyed, consumptive liar, with a breath like
a buzzard, and a record like a convict, for I re-

Arizona Politics 207

gard Mm as a highly estimable gentleman, but
in this morning's issue of the Tombstone Clar-
ion I am directly accused of being a patron of
the 'Bird Cage.' I here and now repudiate
and deny the infamous inference which this
editorial seeks to convey ; but far be it from me
to engage in any endeavor to mislead or de-
ceive the good people of this city. I am frank
to admit that at one time I did visit the 'Bird
Cage,' but I want it distinctly understood that
on that particular occasion mi/ wife was in
Texas."

The walls and rafters of that big building
shook with the tumult caused by this naive
declaration on the part of the Colonel, and when
order had been restored, and after the Colonel
had again walked three or four times across
the stage, still running his fingers over his
dome of thought, he continued :

* ' When my wife was at home, it was always
my custom to leave my office at about six o 'clock
in the evening, and to either entertain my
friends at my home or call upon them at their
home; but after my wife went to visit her
friends in Texas, I found it so lonesome at the
house that I generally spent my evenings at the
office and entertained my friends there. Upon
the evening to which the Morning Bladder,
otherwise known as the Tombstone Clarion, re-
fers, at about ten o'clock I was passing the
'Bird Cage,' and as I had had so many cases

208 A California Pioneer

brought before me, involving crimes committed
in that den of iniquity, I thought I would drop
in and see just what kind of a place it was. So
I forthwith procured a ticket and entered.

"Directly in front sat the audience, and be-
yond I saw the stage, while to my left there was
a bar from which about a half dozen bar-maids,
carrying little trays, were filling orders and de-
livering drinks to the patrons. From this bar,
and extending to the stage, there was a row
of boxes, while, on the opposite side, a similar
row of boxes extended the entire length of the
room. In front of these boxes, and for the ob-
vious purpose of concealing the inmates, cur-
tains were hung, and if the occupants had even
a little pride left they of course did not wish to
be seen, and the curtain would be down. If the
man had still a small spark of self-respect left,
he might draw back the edge of the curtain
nearest the stage, so that he could witness the
performance, while at the same time running
the risk of being seen himself; but if he did
not care for his reputation, or had none to care
for, and had lost all self-respect, the curtain
was drawn entirely back. And behold ! In one
of those wide open boxes, and to my utter
amazement, I observed the editor of the Tomb-
stone Clarion, while upon his knee sat the no-
torious female character known as 'Brick Top,'
whom I have been compelled to send to jail no
less than eight times for being drunk and dis-

Arizona Politics 209

orderly ; and, to make matters still more abomi-
nable and nauseating, my distinguisbed friend,
tbe editor and bis boon companion 'Brick Top,'
were swilling stale beer."

Tbe next day Colonel Brown buried bis op-
ponent beneatb an avalancbe of votes.

CHAPTER XXIX

A EEMINDEB OP A FOOL BABGAIK

It will be remembered tbat, on my way to
San Carlos to bid for the supplying of beef
cattle, I had made a proposition to some Es-
camarine Indians to exchange ten ponies for a
young Indian girl.

I was now running a dairy of one hundred
cows at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains,
about twelve miles from Tombstone, and about
a quarter of a mile away from the road that
led across the Sulphur Spring Valley to the
timber country in the mountains to the east.

One morning about ten o'clock we found a
wagon loaded with lumber, standing in this road
near the point where it made the turn toward
our house. The teamster lay on the ground
dead, but stiU warm, and the harness was scat-
tered all about. Footprints indicated that
this butchery had been caused by Indians con-
cealed behind clumps of mesquite brush near
the road. The Indians in that country would
at times remain quiet for months, and then,
without warning, they would suddenly swoop
down upon the unprepared ranchers or f reight-

210

A Reminder of a Fool Bargain 211

ers. By agreement among the ranchers the
mayor was to be informed of the presence of
Indians when discovered, and he in turn would
send word to the nearest military post and the
citiziens generally, whereupon horsemen would
be sent out in a hurry to inform white people
living out in the country.

I had with me at this dairy, besides my son
Frank, one Mexican and two Swiss. I sent the
Mexican with a note to the Mayor, and sent
the Swiss boys to bring in the cows ; but these
men were so alarmed that as soon as they got
out of sight they fled for town, and as a result
Frank and I had to do the milking. We were
able to bring in ninety-nine of the cows (one of
them being missing), and, with a rifle lying
down at our side, completed the milking of these
ninety-nine cows at nine o'clock that night,
when Frank started for town with the milk.

Knowing that if another band of Indians
came along in the night they would probably
burn down the house and shoot me as I en-
deavored to escape, I took a pair of blankets and
my rifle and went out on the plain, where I
crawled into a clump of mesquite brush and re-
mained until Frank's return, about ten o'clock
the next morning, — ^the three hired men com-
ing with him.

My missing cow had been purchased by me on
the opposite side of the valley, and thinking

212 A Ccdifomia Pioneer

that perhaps she had started for her old home
and might stop at some water hole in the center
of the valley, I saddled the best horse I had,
taking my rifle with me, and started out to
search for her.

On the way I avoided patches of brush or
low swags in the plain, and just before reaching
some low land I passed down a small ravine
about forty yards long. Being unable to see
but a short distance ahead, I took my rifle from
its scabbard, which hung to the pommel of the
saddle, and held it pointed along the trail in
front of me. In rounding a short turn, I met
an Indian in precisely the same condition of
preparedness. He had a red handkerchief tied
around his head, and in smiling showed a set
of teeth each one of which was nearly as broad
as my thumbnail. He rode a big black horse, —
which I afterwards learned had been stolen
from one of my neighbors, — ^was riding without
a saddle, and had a piece of rawhide for a
bridle.

The trail was so narrow that only friends
could pass, and as our horses came to a stop
their heads were not more than five feet apart.
These Indians can understand and make them-
selves understood.

"How do you do?" I said.

"How?" he replied.

I asked him if he had seen a big brown cow.

A Reminder of a Fool Bargain 213

"No see him," lie replied. In speaking, the
Indian never uses the feminine gender.

By way of keeping up the conversation I
asked him where he was going, and was all the
time hoping that by some movement of his horse
the muzzle of his rifle might be turned aside
for an instant, affording me an opportunity to
draw mine, but I quickly appreciated that he
was on the watch for an opportunity of doing
precisely the same thing. In answer to my
question he replied:

' ' Go see my friends. ' ' I told him I could tell
him where they were: they were at Willow
Springs in the Whetstone Mountains, and had
gone there yesterday morning. He then en-
deavored to get me to look in some other di-
rection, asking:

"Where water?" I looked him straight in
the eye, and I told him to go back to the low
ground, turn to the right, and, by following the
edge of the low ground about four hundred
yards, he would come to a big spring. The
"game," however, did not work, for he simply
grinned and showed his big teeth.

Then, with ferocity darting from his eyes, he
said:

"I think I know you."

"No!" I replied, "you never saw me be-
fore."

To this he said :

214 A Calif omia Pioneer

"No; me no see you. My niece lie tell me.
He say you go tlie Black canyon. You buy him
ten ponies. You no go git."

I laughed and denied knowing where the
Black canyon was, and said that I had never
seen his niece (I now fervently wished I never
had encountered that charmer), and that it
must have heen some other man, but he per-
sisted :

"Me think yes. My niece he say how big
you. He say hair little gray, eye heap sharp,
all same eagle."

I answered that he was mistaken and added :

"Good-by."

"Good-by," he returned.

But neither of us moved an inch, whereupon
I pulled on the lines with my left hand and made
my horse move one step back, saying again :

"Good-by."

He did the same thing, for he was as anxious
to get rid of me as I was to get rid of him, and
when we had backed our horses about twenty
feet each, we were out of sight of each other.

There was a little higher ground on my right,
which I had to pass in returning, and I thought
the Indian would make a break for it in order to
get the advantage of the first shot, if I kept up
the traU. In a few quick jumps I reached this
high ground, and springing from my horse,
waited for a black head to show itself above this
little mesa; but it did not appear. After a

A Reminder of a Fool Bargain 215

short wait I heard a whoop, and looking across
the low ground in the direction from which the
sound came, I saw the old rascal waving his
red handkerchief and defying me with his
"Whool Whoo!"

CHAPTEE XXX

THP APACHE INDIAN AND HIS ATROCITIES

John Noonan lived at the moutli of a long
canyon that canae down from the Dragoon
Mountains on the Sulphur VaUey side, ahout
ten imles from where I was then living.
[ During the rainy season an abundajice of
"^ater for stock purposes came down this can-
yon, and about six feet below the surface there
was plenty of water to be found at all seasons
of the year.

Noonan was a stock rancher, and he had dug
a well and put in a low row of watering troughs
at a point about one hundred feet from the foot
of a spur of the mountain, which -jutted out
into the valley and which was about fifty feet
high and covered with bowlders. At the foot
of this spur Noonan had built his cabin, and
as there was no other water to be had within
ten miles, his stock, consisting of about a hun-
dred head, came home at noon to drink.

One day at noon, while the stock was at the
troughs, Noonan observed about sixty Apache
warriors on the plain, headed for his place.
He quickly grabbed his rifle and hid up among

216

The Apache Indian amd His Atrocities 217

these big bowlders. When about half a mile
distant the main body of the Indians stopped,
while ten of their number came on to Noonan's
cabin, each of them armed with a rifle, carried
cocked and ready for use.

Upon reaching the cabin, Noonan observed
one of them knock on the door, whUe the other
nine stood ready for action, with their rifles
pointing at the door. Finding no one at home,
the entire band of Indians now came up and
camped. They started a fire and then began
to kill Noonan's cattle, roast the meat on sticks,
and skin the sides of the heads for sandals.
They then packed upon their horses the hind
quarters of the cattle they had killed, and left
the remainder of the carcasses to rot. They
then shot all the balance of Noonan's cattle
just to see them fall, and, incidentally, to show
the whites their contempt for the race.

The Indians remained at Noonan's place un-
til about four o'clock in the afternoon, and then,
with the exception of one "buck," who had
eaten more than he could carry away, they left.
This straggler went to sleep, and in about an
hour got up and went to the water trough and
leaned over to drink with his rear pointed in
Noonan's direction. The others of the gang
were by this time too far away to hear a rifle
shot, so Noonan drew a bead on this "buck,"
and the bullet went clear through, coming out
at the neck below the chin. Noonan afterwards

218 A California Pioneer

told me lie did not tMnk the bullet struck a
single bone. Noonan was advised not to re-
main at his place, but he disregarded this ad-
vice and re-stocked the place.

"While it is said the Indian never forgets a
favor, it is certain he never forgets nor for-
gives an injury; and two years later sixteen
Indians from San Carlos kiUed Noonan ; and I
happened to be along at the time his body was
found. It was riddled with bullets, unspeak-
ably mutilated, and was lying on the floor, while
upon and over it, probably to the depth of a
foot, had been scattered flour, rice, ashes,
pickles, syrup, sugar, beans, and other supplies,
while his bunks, table, and dishes had been all
smashed to pieces.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PECK FAMILY

Mb. and Mrs. Peck and a niece of the lat-
ter, — aged about twelve years, — ^lived six miles
east of Nogales on the Arizona side of the line.
Peck was a stock rancher, and one day while
absent from home looking after his stock, an
old Apache chief named Whoo, with his band
of seventy-five cutthroats, came to Peck's
house, and killed Mrs. Peek, and putting the
girl on a horse behind an Indian, took her away
with them.

Upon reaching a point about two miles from
the ranch, they met Peck driving about ten
head of cattle, which they took from him. They
then bound him and lashed him to a tree, leav-
ing his feet about two feet above the ground,
piled dry wood around him, and were about to
start a fire, when two Indians and a Mexican,
who had lagged behind the band, came up.
This Mexican was a bad character, and after
committing some crime he had joined this In-
dian band in order to evade the law officers;
but at one time he had been in Peck's employ.
He now interceded for Peck, telling the Indians

219

220 A California Pioneer

that Peck was a good man, never bothered the
Indians, and always took their part in any dis-
cussion in reference to them. The last part of
this statement was a pure invention, but it had
its effect; for Peck was immediately released.

The niece was still sitting on the horse be-
hind the Indian, of course crying as though her
heart would break, and the Mexican now began
to plead for her release ; but the Indians would
not listen to such a proposition, as they wanted
to keep her to be a wife for one of their young
chiefs.

From this point the band went over the line
into Mexico, and camped in a long canyon ; and
here, having been located by the Mexican scouts,
two hundred Mexican soldiers were sent after
them, and at a given signal one hundred of
these soldiers attacked from the east side and
the other hundred from the west.

The Indians were taken by surprise, and a
large number of them were killed, but some of
them on horses escaped into the timber, and
among those escaping was the one who had the
girl behind him.

In passing at breakneck speed over a smooth
place, where the bedrock was on the surface of
the ground, his horse fell, which resulted in
dismounting both the Indian and the panic-
stricken girl. She had sense enough left, how-
ever, to lie down behind a rock until the shoot-
ing at the Indian, as he continued on foot up

The Peck Family 221

the slope, ceased; whereupon she ran down to
the soldiers, who took her to Hermosillo, and
sent her from there to Nogales. But as soon
as she reached the ground she started on foot
back for the home of her lonely uncle.

CHAPTER XXXII

AN AEIZONA ROMANCE

Thebb is no fictitious nonsense about the love
story I am now to relate.

Here were no purling brooks beneath am-
brosial shades, no waving pines to furnish
-(Eolian music for the weary, no laughing wave-
lets along a sandy beach, where levesiok swains
wander when the moon is full; for there was
no running water there, no timber larger than
greasewood and wild sage, and no beach nearer
than the Gulf of California, — two hundred and
fifty miles away.

A man, whom I will call Davenport, was fore-
man of a gang of men in the Grand Central
Mine, and he lived, with an invalid wife and
daughter Agnes, in a modest white cottage on
Third Street, south of Allen. Davenport was
a blond, while his wife was a curly haired bru-
nette, and Agnes, partaking of the type of both,
had a profusion of long brown curls hung over
her shoulders. She was not only a very attrac-
tive young woman, but was, as well, really a
wonderful player of the piano.

One day the father fell down a three hundred
222

An Arizona, Romance 223

foot shaft, and was instantly killed on the bed-
rock at the bottom. At one time he had had
a bank account amounting to a few hundred dol-
lars, but the protracted illness of his wife had
steadUy reduced this "nest egg,^^ and the ex-
penses attending his funeral used up the bal-
ance; and so, with the bread-winner of the
family gone, Agnes was in almost hopeless de-
spair.

She sought employment among the mer-
chants, but girls were not then employed in the
stores at Tombstone. Then she endeavored to
organize a class in music, but the population of
Tombstone had not gone to that sage-brush
country to learn music but to get rich and then
go back to their homes; therefore failure also
met this attempt.

At that time there lived at Tombstone a man
by the name of Johnson who conducted the larg-
est gambling house in town, and while his mor-
als may not have pleased everybody, he was
widely known for his charity. No unfortunate
miner ever asked Johnson for help without get-
ting it, nor did any deserving cause fail to en-
list his financial assistance. As a consequence,
Johnson was known, at least by sight, to every
inhabitant of Tombstone. He was tall, straight
as a candle, and had dark brown hair, and when
he was observed hurrying along the street, men,
who would not speak to him because of his oc-
cupation, would remark :

224 A California Pioneer

"There goes Johnson, Some one must be
sick or hurt."

Johnson's place of business was at the comer
of Allen and Fourth Street, the entrance be-
ing on Fourth Street near the comer. The
room was a large one, and at the rear end there
was a bar, beside which was a lunch counter,
where patrons were accommodated with short
orders. Farther along, across the end of the
room, was a music loft, — elevated about four
or five feet above the floor, — ^which accom-
modated a piano, while on the east side of the
room there was a row of sofas and easy chairs.
The center of the room was occupied by tables,
which Johnson rented to men who were con-
ducting banking games, monte, roulette, etc.
There was no charge made for the poker tables,
and the players came and went away as they
got broke.

Johnson himself seldom gambled, and his in-
come came almost altogether from the bar, the
lunch counter, and the rent of the tables.

At the Davenport cottage the last meal had
been eaten, and Agnes had again started up-
town in search of employment, when, after go-
ing about a block, she met Johnson, whom she
knew by sight. Agnes had determined upon
two things. One of these was that she would
not beg, and the other that she would have em-
ployment of some kind.

Upon meeting Johnson, she addressed him.

^n Arizona Romance 225

"This is Mr. Johnson, I helieve," she began.

"Yes," he replied; "that is my name."

"My name is Agnes Davenport," she added.

At this Johnson asked her if she was the
daughter of John Davenport, who had been
killed in the Grand Central Mine. Agnes re-
plied that she was, and went on to say that she
and her mother had just eaten the last meal in
the house. Johnson immediately put his hand
in his pocket, but Agnes checked him by say-
ing:

"Hold on. I am not begging, — ^I would
rather starve than beg, — ^but I do want work."

Then she proceeded to tell Johnson that she
had tried to sell their house and lot for enough
money to take her and her invalid mother back
East to their friends, but because of the bill
which was then pending in Congress to repeal
the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, a buyer for
the cottage could not be found at any price;
that she had tried to get emplojrment in the
stores, and had then tried to get up a music
class, but she had only met with failure.

Johnson told her that the very reasons which
had made it impossible for her to get employ-
ment would make it impossible for him to ob-
tain employment for her, to which Agnes re-
plied:

"I know of a place I can fill, and you can give
it to me."

226 A California Pioneer

"What is it?" asked Johnson. "I should
certainly like to know."

"I want to play the piano in your place of
business," replied Agnes.

"Oh, no!" said Johnson. "That would not
do at all. Think of your reputation."

"I have thought of it, and dreamed about it;
but we can not eat reputation, and we must
eat," replied Agnes.

"But," said Johnson, "you will hear pro-
fanity, perhaps vulgarity, and possibly now and
then the crack of a pistol."

To this Agnes answered that she could make
music that would drown any racket of that kind.

Johnson gazed at the ground reflectively for
a few seconds before saying:

"Very well, if you want to try the place, you
may consider yourself engaged, and your wages
will be eight dollars per night. You must be
there at eight o'clock in the evening, and re-
main until the place is closed, which may be
at any time from midnight until sunrise; but
your wages will be the same whether the time
is long or short, and they will be paid to you
every night at closing time."

Agnes thanked him profusely, and then said
to hiTTi that now that she had employment she
wished to borrow the amount of one night's
wages. Whereupon Johnson handed her a ten
dollar gold piece on account. He then told her
that he wanted her to go now to his place of

'An Arizona Romance 227

business, so that he could hear some of the
music she had told him about, — ^musio that
would drown the crack of a pistol.

They entered the barroom, and Johnson, with
Agnes following him, elbowed his way among
the tables and gamblers, with which the place
was well filled, and on up to the music loft.
Agnes ran her fingers lightly over the keys, and
then struck up a piece called "A Storm at Sea,"
— a good representation of the thunder made by
great rollers breaking upon a rockbound coast.

The loungers on the sofas and easy chairs
leaned forward, holding their cigars between
their fingers, and listened; the man behind the
bar spilled the liquor he was serving; while the
cook behind the lunch counter let the beefsteak
bum, and the gamblers about the tables, with
their money piled up and their cards in their
hands, sat spellbound as they gazed in the di-
rection of the music loft.

After Agnes had finished the piece, Johnson
told her that that would do very well, where-
upon Agnes said to him, as the music loft
was wide open, that during her rest moments
some of these objectionable men would very
likely be coming up to the loft, and unless some
friend of hers should call, she very much pre-
ferred to be alone. It was therefore arranged
that if any undesirable person obtruded himself,
Agnes was to strike certain notes as a signal,
whereupon either Johnson or the barkeeper, if

228 ^A California Pioneer

Jolinson should be absent, would remove the ob-
jectionable person from the nmsic loft. Agnes
also made the request that no man who drank
or played cards should be introduced to
her, as they would also likely be coming to the
loft. This was agreed to, whereupon Johnson
led the way to the door, and bid Agnes good-
day.

He then turned to the crowd around the
tables, who had not returned to their play but
were waiting to hear from Johnson as to who
she was and where he found her, Johnson in-
formed them that she was a lady, and that any
man who spoke to her without an introduction
would be ejected from the place, and that who-
ever spoke an improper word to her would not
live to get out. He then told them that she was
poor, and was working to earn sufficient money
to take her invalid mother back east to their
friends; that she was to be treated with re-
spect, and when she was going in or out of the
room they were to stand aside and permit her
to pass.

Agnes ' playing proved a great drawing card
for Johnson's gambling place, and there were
many men who had never entered such a place
before who now called to listen to the music;
and, as they did not drink, they either bought
cigars or patronized the lunch counter.

Agnes had a few male friends who used fre-
quently to call and chat with her during her

'An 'Arizona Romance 229

rest moments, but her friends among the
women were not so charitahle, and had de-
serted her completely, and in meeting her upon
the street they would turn their faces heaven-
ward and gaze into the clouds or at the stars.
Agnes had been a great favorite, especially with
the churches, which wanted her in their choirs,
and hitherto no social gathering had been com-
plete without her presence, due to her singing
and her playing. At all the picnics in the grove
at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains it had
been the same. Now, however, she was pointed
out on the streets as "the girl who plays the
piano at Johnson's gambling place."

Regardless of all criticism, the big gambling
house continued to prosper and flourish, and
the "wicked" Johnson still kept up in his work
of charity.

Many were the applicants, among Johnson's
regular patrons, for an introduction to Agnes;
but they all knew that the drinker and the gam-
bler were barred, and all Johnson needed to re-
ply was : ' ' No. I saw you playing for money, ' '
or, "I saw you at the bar a little while ago."

There was a blacksmith by the name of John
Gibson, who conducted a shop on Fremont
Street. He was about twenty-five years old, a
little below medium height, had dark brown
hair, and a right arm made hard as steel by
his work upon the anvil.

Attracted by the music, Gibson dropped into

230 A California Pioneer

Johnson's 'place one evening, and he was so
taken with either the music or the musician that
he became a regular attendant. He at length
asked Johnson for an introduction to Agnes,
and as his greatest sin consisted of smoking,
his request was granted, and he chatted with
her a few moments during her rest time, and
had the good sense to leave when it was time
for the music to begin again.

He now became not only a regular attendant
at Johnson's but a frequent caller upon Agnes,
and in time began to escort her home after the
night's work was over. As this sometimes did
not happen until daylight, Gibson found that
his late hours very much interfered with his
work in the shop the next day. He was now
becoming really very much interested in Agnes,
and he contrived to go to bed very early, and
to get up at midnight, when he would repair to
Johnson's and wait for Agnes until the place
closed up, when he would escort her safely
home.

William Billings was a patron of Johnson's
bar, and he gambled in a smaU way. He was
not, I think, a heavy drinker, but with a few
drinks he seemed to be irresistibly attracted to
the music loft ; and there he went on more than
one occasion. Each time Agnes gave the
agreed signal, whereupon either Johnson or the
barkeeper came to the loft and removed the
objectionable Billings.

An Arizona Bomcmce 231

On the particular night to which I am about
to refer, Johnson's place closed a few minutes
before midnight, and Billings, somewhat in
liquor, was on the sidewalk when Agnes came
out on her way home. He accosted her and in-
vited her to go across the street with him to a
restaurant to have a cup of coffee before she
went home. She made no reply but started
walking rapidly down the street; whereupon
Billings caught her by the arm and pulled her
from the sidewalk, as he again invited her to
go to the restaurant.

At this psychological moment John Gibson
came around the comer, and immediately
realized the situation. He hurried to Agnes'
side, and instantly that strong right arm shot
out with the impulse of a trip-hammer, struck
Billings on the temple, and felled him like an
ox.

On the way to Agnes' home hardly a word
had been said by either her or Gibson, but as
she bid him good-night, at the door, John
finally discovered that he had a tongue, and his
reply was :

"Not yet. I want to talk to you a few min-
utes."

Proceeding, he told her that she had worked
in that place long enough, and that some night,
when he did not happen to be around, she would
get into some serious trouble. Agnes replied
that she had not worked there quite long enough,

232 'A California Pioneer

but that in ten days more she would have
enough money to take her mother back East in
a palace car.

"But," said John, "I have a proposition to
make to you."

"Is it better than eight dollars a night?" she
asked.

After a laugh, John answered:

"I do not think you would get eight dollars
every night, but it would be better than that in
the long run. I propose right now to go to
the residence of the County Clerk and get a mar-
riage license. Then I will come back for you,
and we will go to the Magistrate and get mar-
ried."

To this Agnes replied that she did not be-
lieve in pulling people out of bed at that time
of night, but that if he would come around at
ten o'clock in the morning she would be ready.
Agreed !

At ten o'clock the next momiag John Gibson
was in jail, and Agnes was being subpoenaed
as a witness at the inquest to be held by the
coroner upon the body of Billings.

As Billings had dropped to the ground, the
back of his neck struck on the comer of the
plank sidewalk curbing, his neck was broken,
and he died almost instantly.

At the coroner's inquest Agnes gave her testi-
mony, as did also three other eyewitnesses, and

uin Arizona Bom<mc6 233

the following verdict was returned by the cor-
oner's jury:

"We, the jury impaneled and sworn in this
case, do find that the name of the deceased was
Willing Billings, that he was a miner by occupa-
tion, and residing at Tombstone, Arizona. We
further find that he came to his death by a fall."

Gibson was liberated, he and Agnes were mar-
ried that afternoon, and within a few days they,
with Agnes' invalid mother, left for the north-
west.

Three years later I met a gentleman who
knew them in their new home. Gibson was stiU
pounding iron, while Agnes was looking after
the house and playing the organ in the Episco-
pal church. A little black-eyed Agnes was
keeping them company.

EPILOGUE

The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase
Act put a crimp in silver mining in Arizona as
well as elsewhere, and the busiest day that ever
dawned upon Tombstone was now at hand.
From mines that had been employing thousands
of men the pumping plants were being hoisted
to the surface to be cleaned, greased, and either
stored away or shipped to other sections, where
they could be used in the gold mines. The six-
teen-mule teams, which had been taxed to the
utmost in hauling silver ore to the mills, were
now started on their last trip, while the drivers
were wondering where they could get new em-
ployment. The merchants were repacking their
stocks of merchandise for shipment to other
places, while in the residential section of the
city there was an incessant diu of hammers as
the furniture and household effects were being
boxed and crated for removal. The doors and
windows were now the most valuable parts of
a house, because they could be carried away for
use elsewhere. In fine, what had been the
thriving city of Tombstone took on the re-
semblance of an army breaking camp, and
everybody seemed anxious to get away.

234

Epilogue 235

With many others I trekked northward, and
ultimately again reached the Salinas Valley,
where I have since resided. Events have
proved that all of my experiences worth noting
were to end in Arizona, for since I left there not
an incident in my life has been worth setting
down.

In this retrospect of a life now far exceeding
the allotted span of three score years and ten,
I am fortunate in the possession of a memory
that, with astonishing clearness, brings before
me the varying incidents, both pleasant and un-
pleasant, of all those bygone days.

In common with the great generality of man-
kind, the sun has often brightened, and clouds
have at times obscured and darkened, my path-
way toward the setting sun.

Some of my experiences were not altogether
pleasant, and others of them I would avoid if
I were to go over the route a second time. But
now I am approaching the end of the long trail,
with neither misgiving nor discontent, feeling
quite well assured that, everything considered,
I have had a pretty good time after aU.